Pokemon: Ascension to Master
by Pokelegend
Summary: The beginning of a pokemon trainer's journey in the Kanto region. The story is mostly based off of the games, but includes characters and events from the Anime.
1. Chapter 1: The Journey Begins

**Welcome to my first fanfiction. I have a (hopefully) good story planned, and I hope to let it live up to its full potential. (Don't we all?) Anyhow, it is a story about a kid rising to a Pokemon Master, based a lot more on the games. And without further ado, here it is:**

I drifted back into consciousness, and rolled over in bed to see the clock. It said 5:43. I turned and sat upright, planting my feet on the floor and yawning while rubbing my tired eyes. I usually sleep in, especially on my birthday. My birthday. Oh yeah- let's see, I'm 10 now. Double digits. Not nine anymore. Not since five hours and forty-five minutes ago. I looked up again. 5:46. Okay, so that's actually five hours and forty-_seven_ minutes. I really didn't feel much older or smarter. I looked around my cluttered room. All kinds of books, magazines, figures, and other things on the same subject: Pokemon.

I have lived and breathed pokemon ever since I learned to read at age four or five. My mom says I'm talented and way ahead of my age. I'm not sure, but I think she means I'm smarter than usual. I don't _feel_ smart. But I can name all seventeen pokemon types and what they're good and bad against.

I looked up at the clock again. 5:57. My, how time flies. I stood up and yawned again. I would have gone back to sleep for another 15 minutes, but the suspense was killing me. I finally took the plunge and went downstairs early.

"Morning, Joseph," Mom said when I came to the bottom of the stairs. "I'm not quite ready making breakfast."

"That's okay, Mom, I don't mind waiting." The truth was, I did mind. But I didn't want to let it on.

She only took a couple minutes to finish, and I wolfed it down as quick as I could. I looked at the clock. 6:10. Twenty minutes till I had to be at Professor Oak's lab. I would receive my first pokemon and begin my journey to become a Pokemon Master.

Twenty minutes can go fast. Right then, it sure _didn't_. 6:30 was being as slow as Christmas.

I left my house at 6:28 because I couldn't stand the suspense. "Say hi to the professor for me, and come back to open your presents!" Mom yelled after me as I ran out the door.

The trip was very short due to the fact that Oak's house, er, lab, is one of four or five buildings in Pallet Town. Yeah, I know, very small town I live in. On the way, I didn't see a peep out of any of the buildings except a light on in my house and Oak's.

I came though the door just in time to see a very groggy Prof. Oak eating a piece of pizza for breakfast. "Hi, Professor, Mom says hi, guess what day it is? Yup, you bet it's my birthday! Are those anchovies and spinach on your pizza?"

A very tired-looking Professor Oak responded, "Hello, Joseph, Happy birthday. And yes, I like those on my pizza." The pizza of which we were speaking had suddenly disappeared. Sometimes I swear that guy's magic. "Speaking of your birthday, I'd like to give you a present." I like this guy. He's a little old, but he gets right to the point and didn't have to be reminded about my present.

I went over to the thing that I can't figure out whether it's a desk or a machine or a table or what, the thing with the red tops of three pokeballs sticking out of it. Except there where only two. "Hey, there are only two of the starters! What's the big idea?"

The professor frowned. "I'm sorry, Joseph, but another trainer got here before you did. I've been up since five." The last bit annoyed me slightly. I didn't get first pick, even though I got up extra early. No matter.

"Professor, which one did they take?" I asked. "Bulbasaur, I believe. Went to a very good and responsible trainer." Was he talking about Ash? I knew Ash. He's a good friend of mine, nice and dependable, but a little dense. He probably wouldn't get that particular kind of praise. And the prof. knew him, so he would have mentioned him by name.

"So that leaves Squirtle and Charmander to pick from." I said. The professor nodded. "Smart boy," he said. I sometimes wonder about the professor. It didn't take a genius to figure that one out.

I took my time. I like all three pretty equally, but with one choice gone, the slimmed down options made it either easier or harder to choose. Eventually, though, I picked Charmander.

I sent the small orange lizard out of his ball, and he looked up at me with his great big green eyes. "Char!" he exclaimed, and the flame on his tail seemed to burn brighter. "Thanks, Professor!" I said, and took out a berry I had picked on the way to his house. Lab. Whatever. "Char! Mander Mander!" he said, as if to say, "I love my trainer!" or, more likely, "Yay! Breakfast!" But as soon as he got ahold of the berry, his tail flame turned from red and yellow to green and orange and he sneezed on his prize. The berry, now ash, slid through his stubby, pointy reptile fingers like sand. His tail fire returned to normal, but he sat down and cried. "Looks like he is allergic to that kind of berry. Here, let him have this one," said the good professor.

"Don't cry. Here, have this one," I offered to my poor Charmander. He brightened right up and took it. It disappeared the same exact way Oak's pizza had. Then he hugged my leg. I looked at the remains of the first berry on the floor. "I think I'll nickname you. How does Ash sound?" My small new friend looked up at me and gave me a happy, toothy grin. "Ash it is."

It was right about then Proffesor Oak's grandson Gary walked in. "Hey, Gramps, guess what I'm here for!" Professor Oak said, "Gary! Nice to see you. How's your mother?"

Gary just ignored him. "Where's my Bulbasaur? I told you I want Bulbasaur!"

"I'm sorry, Gary, but Bulbasaur was already taken this morning."

"Okay, I'll just take Charmander."

The professor opened his mouth, but didn't get to say anything because Gary had already seen my new pokemon and yelled out, "Man! I never get to pick anything around here!"

He then proceeded to grab the ball containing Squirtle. "Squirtle! I choose you!"

This didn't turn out well for Gary initially. The first thing Squirtle saw when he popped out was me.

"SQUUUUUUUIRRRRRRRT!" he screamed, and leaped into my arms and gave me a hug.

"Hey! Squirtle! I'm your trainer, not him!" Gary shouted incredulously.

Squirtle wiggled out of my arms and dropped to the floor without so much as a hint of reluctance. Then he ran over to Gary and glared back at me, striking a defiant pose.

"That's more like it," said Gary approvingly. He then turned to Prof. Oak. "That all, Gramps?"

"Not quite," said Oak, "I have one more thing to give you." He then proceeded to pull out two shiny new Pokedexes. "All right!" yelled Gary, as if the Pokedex was really a big deal. I accepted mine just to be polite, but I probably had more information stuffed in my head than the Pokedex could offer. I refrained from pointing this out and thanked him anyway. I didn't know Gary very well, but I did notice he never thanked his grandfather for anything.

After thanking the professor for everything one more time, I started to head for the door. "Wait!" I heard Gary call as he caught up with me. "Let's you and me have a battle." I detected a sly twinkle in his eye and a slight grin on his face that said it all. He thought he knew something I didn't.

"Okay," I said, trying to suppress a tiny grin of my own. I _knew_ I knew something he didn't. "Go, Ash!"

"Squirtle, I choose you!" His little smirk broke into a full-out sneer. "Squirtle! Bubblebeam!"

At this point I couldn't resist a smirk of my own. Squirtle sucked in air, and then blew out as hard as he could. Nothing came out but air. The poor turtle fell over on his face and let out a wheeze like a sick animal. Now _I_ was grinning at Gary's confusion. Gary had thought he had a type advantage, water on fire. But I knew for a fact that our pokemon at this stage knew no elemental moves, so his "advantage" was totally nil. We where on even ground.

I didn't feel like pointing this out to him. I told Ash to use Scratch while Squirtle was down. Squirtle got back to his feet, clearly dizzy and rethinking things. Gary was panicking. "Squirtle-uh-try Withdraw!"

Squirtle popped back in his shell. Shoot. "Ash, use Growl!"

My Charmander playfully purred, and Squirtle relaxed a little. So did Gary, not realizing what this would do.

"Now use Scratch again." I was still going strong. Ash had so far taken no damage and Squirtle was not looking very good.

"Squirtle, Tackle attack!" Squirtle was tired, but still completed the attack.

"Growl him again," I instructed my pinned Pokemon. That made Squirtle back off a bit, allowing for a final Scratch attack. Squirtle fell on his face in exhaustion.

"Squirtle, get up! Get up! I'm not about to lose to this joker!" Gary screamed.

"Sorry, buddy, but I think this joker just beat you. Good match." I held out my hand. Gary wouldn't shake it. Oak came up.

"An impressive first battle, Joseph! But I think you and Gary had better heal your Pokemon before you get on your way." To make a long story short, he healed our Pokemon and we got on our way.

On the way home, I bumped into Ash. He looked groggy and slightly panicked, and his trademark hat was ruffled and a little crooked. "Hey Ash. What's up?" I asked.

"I gotta go get to the professor! It's eight o' clock and I'm late!" Eight o' clock? Dang, I've been at the professor's for an hour and a half!

"I got my first Pokemon today. Wanna meet him?"

"Sure," he responded, although I could see he was in a big hurry. I tried to make it quick.

"Ash, this is Ash. Ash, meet Ash."

"Whuh?" Asked Ash(with the hat). It was then I realized my mistake. My friend had the same name as my Charmander. "Char?" he spoke up, clearly as confused as I was.

"Oh, I get it," said 'hat Ash,' and ran off toward Oak's house/lab.

It was 8:15 when I walked in the front door. "Hi Honey," said my mom. "Did you say hi to Sam for me?"

"Sam?"

"The Professor."

"Oh yeah. I did." I scanned the table. There was the cake, and bunch of presents. Mom rounded up my younger siblings and the cake vanished. At least I got a slice. Maybe that's why it went so fast. After my younger siblings quieted down, we got on to the presents. I grabbed the biggest one first. It said, 'from Caleb: Open last,' so I moved on.

Caleb is my big brother, and he's already beaten all the Elite Four of every region up until Sinnoh. That's where he is now. We get updates about his journey now and then. I hope to live up to him.

Most of my loot was suspiciously geared toward my upcoming Pokemon journey. A new backpack, the latest model designed especially for trainers, a belt that holds up to six Pokeballs so I didn't need to dig through my bag to get my Pokemon, and new shoes(my old pair was warn out and I had been mowing the lawn with them). There where also some more or less important stuff like a larger-than-normal quantity of birthday money and so forth.

Finally I got to Caleb's gift. I tore it open, and inside was some more extra cash, a note, and three shiny new Pokeballs. I pooled the cash with my other money and picked up the note.

It said: 'Hey Joseph, I hope you like my gift. The pokeballs contain all three starters from Kanto. They are pedigree bred from my own pokemon and have moves they wouldn't normally know so far ahead of time. (these are called egg moves) As I understand, you already have one of these starters from Professor Oak. Give the one I sent of the matching species to Emily.

That's all and with love, your big bro,

Caleb'

Emily squealed as I handed her the red, black and white ball. "He's all yours, Caleb's orders," I said. She let it out immediately.

I left her to play with her new buddy while I got acquainted with my two new companions. But first I let Ash out so he could meet them too.

First I let out Squirtle. He was pretty happy when I explained I'm his new trainer, but there was no enthusiastic hug like with Gary's Squirtle. He got jealous when I explained about my Charmander, and tried to Hydro Pump him. He missed by a hair and as his punishment I made him wipe up the water off the kitchen floor. Thats how he earned the nickname Hydro Gun. I tried to make them shake hands, which Ash went tenderly along with, but Hydro Gun refused.

I gave up trying to make my water turtle make peace and decided to meet my new Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur took to me almost faster than Ash did, and needed a lot less explaining. He caught Hydro Gun trying to sprinkle Ash behind my back and Vine Whipped him in the rear. Apparently this was a great day for nicknaming; I now had a Bulbasaur I call Bossplant. This made me decide i would craft a nickname for all of my Pokemon companions.

And thus ended my life at Pallet Town. I said goodbye to Emily, her new Charmander, my other younger siblings, and my mom. And thus began my journey.

**Wow, I didn't anticipate how long my most planned chapter would be. Well, there it is, (finally) so now I can move on. Please review(no swearing). All feedback is appreciated, especially constructive, friendly criticism. If you don't like it, tell me how it could be better. Well, signing off now, hope to write more soon.**

**Signed, Pokelegend**


	2. Chapter 2: Team Rocket Trouble

**Hey readers! Chapter two is here. Gotta love all the time there is in summer break. Not all of my additions will be as frequent as this, but I'll try for one or two chapters a week. Now I think I'll quit yakking and get to the story.**

After saying my goodbyes to my family and friends in Pallet Town, I headed up to Route 1. I spent some time training there, but since I had no extra pokeballs, I couldn't catch anything.

Mostly all I saw were Pidgeys and Rattata. They were short work for Hydro Gun and Bossplant, but Ash, not knowing any moves more powerful than Scratch, had a little more trouble and took a bit longer to beat his foes. The more he went along, however, the more confidence he gained and the more punch his moves packed.

After one such battle in which Ash whupped a Rattata almost as easy as my other two new pokemon would, I heard a clicking noise from the trees. It was immediately followed by a large brown blur and a whooshing noise. The next thing I knew, my Charmander was wrapped up in a net. I looked up to the origin of the projectile to see some guy perched in the trees. He had on a black, goofy suit with a great big red 'R' on his hat and chest. He raised a blowdart gun to his mouth. I leaped and covered my fiery reptile with my body. His tail flame burned me, but I was much too concerned about his safety to care.

"Step away from the Pokemon!" he yelled.

"Never!" I threw back. "You won't take my Pokemon!"

The guy made a face, then made a motion like he was going to drop from the tree.

Suddenly, one of the Pokeballs on my belt released my Squirtle. He looked up at the man in the tree defiantly, striking a pose just like Gary's Squirtle had back in Oak's lab.

"No! Hydro Gun!" I screamed. "Get back in your ball NOW!"

The guy smirked as he lowered his blowgun and raised the net launcher and changed the clip. My Squirtle went to all fours as the man trained his launcher on him.

"NOOOOOO!" I screamed as the net flew toward my pokemon. Hydro Gun then did something that surprised me. He stood his ground and fired off a Hydro Pump. The water coursed through the net, inverting it and sending the idiot who fired it crashing to the ground with a sickening thud. He was now completely soaked and wrapped up in his own net.

My Charmander had at this point burned himself free of the net, and he ran over and hugged our rescuer. Hydro Gun blushed for a second, but he was smiling. He patted Ash on the head. His jealousy problems were, for now, over. To congratulate them, I gave them some berries I found and they ate them happily.

I was thinking about how smart my Squirtle was to pop out of his ball and my Charmander for freeing himself, when I heard the sound of a motorcycle approaching. Sure enough, a blue one with a sidecar came speeding down the path, driven by a lady in a police uniform. She pulled up and hopped out.

"What are you doing here, young man?" she demanded.

"I was just training my pokemon. And then some guy in black clothes tried to steal them." At this point a slightly muffled yell came out of the bushes, and the police officer sent out a Growlithe, who then sniffed into the bushes and dragged out the disgruntled thief.

"Growlithe, Fire Fang the net." The small dog pokemon complied, and the officer pulled out the man and handcuffed him.

"Sorry about yelling at you, but I thought you might be this guy in disguise. Allow me to introduce myself," she said, "I am Officer Jenny. You?" She forced the guy into the sidecar.

"Joseph Brian."

"Can I have some identification?" I thought for a second, then pulled out my Pokedex.

"That'll work." she said. I guess it isn't worthless after all.

"Yup, it all checks out. I'd give you a ride to Viridian, but the sidecar's taken up."

"That's okay, I don't mind walking. Besides, my pokemon could use some more training this morning."

"Okay. Well, watch out for Team Rocket." She climbed onto her cycle.

"Team Rocket?" I asked.

"The criminal organization _this_ guy's with." She pointed at the guy in the sidecar. "They've gotten worse lately, and they've taken to stealing Pokemon. I don't have any more time to chat. I guess this is goodbye for now." I said bye and with that, she drove off.

The walk to Viridian from tha point was full of training and surprisingly free of incident. When I finally got there, the first place I went was the Mart. I bought some potions and pokeballs, and then beat a Team Rocket guy out of there.

Next I went to the Pokecenter.

"Hello Joseph!" greeted the lady behind the counter.

"Hi, who are you and how do you know my name?" I responded.

"I am Nurse Joy. I got word from the good Professor Oak that you were headed this way." She patted the machine next to her. "Do you know what this machine does?"

"I've read about it. It will quickly rest and refresh my pokemon from normal battle fatigue and wear in a matter of seconds. More serious stuff has to be taken care of in the back of the Pokecenter, though. My Charmander got to use the one in Oak's lab."

"Very good!" she said. "Now, if I'm correct, you want to use it, right?"

"My pokemon could use a rest." I handed her the pokeballs. She nestled them in the machine and turned it on. the pokeballs glowed with light two or three times and then the machine dinged. Joy lifted the lid and handed them back.

"Thanks," I said, and clipped them back on my belt.

It was right about then some guy bumped into me. "Sorry," he said. He looked like he was in a rush. "It's okay," I replied. He ran out the door.

About three seconds later, Officer Jenny burst through the door. "Everybody check for your pokemon! A Team Rocket pickpocket just came through here!" I checked my belt. Only one pokeball was there. Ash's. The other two were gone.

"Hey!" I yelped. There was no way he could have unclipped those without making any noise. Yet somehow he did.

Me and Officer Jenny caught up with him in the town outskirts. He was soaked, beaten and bruised. My Bulbasaur and Squirtle sat next to him, just waiting for me.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. The bruises looked suspiciously like they were Vine Whip inflicted.

I felt ready to challenge a gym, so I sidled on up to the one in Viridian. There was some big guy up front.

"Excuse me, but I want to get in. Will you please move?" I waited patiently, but he didn't budge.

"Got any badges, kid?" he rumbled. The gym badge case I got this morning for my birthday was empty.

"No," I replied.

"Then get outta here, kid. Scram." This guy had no manners at all.

"Why?" I asked.

"'Cause if you ain't got seven badges, I can't let ya in. Shoo."

At that point, I just left. I'll just deal with that ogre when I have seven badges.

**Well, I think that's a good place to stop. In other news, please review! I'm pretty happy because I already got one, (thanks to Pete the Rock) but I need more. Also:**

**DISCLAIMER:**** I do not own Pokemon or its characters and creatures. (sure wish I did)**

**CLAIMER:**** I DO own all characters I made up, such as Joseph and his family.**

**I think this is a good place to sign off. Look for more soon, and remember to grace me with your opinion.**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Pokelegend**


	3. Chapter 3: Meet the Man With the Mr Mime

**The writing of this chapter got stalled due to a power outage. I've been without electricity for four days, so instead of having three chapters last week, I wrote two. In other news, thanks for the reviews I have received. They help me terminate errors. So now, here's chapter 3. Hope you like it.**

I spent the rest of the morning exploring west of Viridian, training my pokemon and finding the path to Victory Road. There was a building at the beginning, but the guard wouldn't let me through. Apparently, I needed eight gym badges first. At least he was polite about it, unlike the musclehead posted at Viridian Gym.

I had caught a Rattata on the way back and nicknamed it Squeaker. I also caught a Pidgey and she ended up with Birdie for a nickname. I know, I know, not a very original name, but that's what fits. I put them in the PC pokemon storage system for later. I didn't actually care much for Rattata's evolution Raticate, but I still planned on evolving him later because it's good for me to raise a diverse pool of Pokemon. Birdie was so I could fly around after she evolved. Then again, eventually Ash will become a Charizard. Charizard is a winged dragon, and though not as skilled in the air, still can serve the purpose of 'flier.' So I guess Birdie is gonna evolve for the same reason as Squeaker.

I bought lunch from the mart at Viridian, and after a break with my pokemon, I started to head north. Looking behind me, I saw my friend Ash approaching Viridian, dragging a Pikachu by a rope. I resolved to call him later to see what the heck that was about.

I was headed down Route 2, when suddenly two very different and yet very similar pokemon crossed my path. They were both Nidoran, but I could tell one was male and one was female due to their coloring and body shape. They both had the same shape of eyes, which made me curious. Judging by the way their wide, innocent eyes were watching me, they were curious too.

At that point I decided to engage them in battle. I sent out Hydro Gun and Bossplant. The two Nidoran looked at each other, nodded, and leaped at my pokemon, obviously going for a Tackle.

"Hydro gun, use Hydro Pump, Bossplant, Vine Whip!" Neither of these had a type advantage, but I had no Ground or Psychic type moves. Yet.

The Hydro Pump forced them back, buying Bossplant a precious moment to grab them with Vine Whip. His own Poison type prevented him from getting poisoned himself. He lifted them in the air and smashed their heads together. Then he set them down.

They were dizzy from having their heads bonked and weakened by the Hydro Pump, so I thought this would be an opportune time to attempt a capture. I pulled out two spare pokeballs and tossed them toward the duo. The spheres sucked them up, and after a moment they clicked. The capture was successful.

My belt now had five pokeballs on it. My three starters and two Nidoran. One more space open.

A little ways down the road, a small bird pokemon stepped out of the foliage. It toted a leek and looked at me with a wary eye. Farfetch'd. They're nearly extinct, and finding one in the wild was next to impossible. Many people go their entire lives without seeing a Farfetch'd, captive or not. I racked my brain for any other place in Kanto that they would be any more likely to appear than Route 2, but I came up blank.

This was too rare of an occurance to pass up.

"Go, Ash!" My Charmander popped out of his ball.

"Ash, use Ember!" Ash was pretty proud to have learned the move earlier this morning. The flame flew from his mouth and smacked into the ducklike pokemon. It squawked angrily. "Fetch'd!" The angry bird furiously ran foreward and beat on Ash with his stick. Ash, barely affected, grabbed his tail from behind him and put the fire under Farfetch'd's chin. The bird didn't like having his beak burned, so he backed off and then began using Swords Dance. That freaked me out a little, because now he could actually hurt my Charmander with his stick. I grabbed a pokeball and chucked it at the angry duck. It broke out easily. Apparently, he wasn't through with me yet.

I had Ash use Smokescreen. I heard the Farfetch'd coughing and choking, and made Ash use Growl a couple times. These caused the poor bird to loose the will to fight, and this time he gave up and let me catch him.

I sent him back out to study him, marvel at my luck, and celebrate. I could tell there was something different about him, but I couldn't put my finger on it. As I contemplated this, I also let out my Nidoran. I remembered I needed to nickname them. Seeing their similar eyes, I wondered out loud if they were brother and sister. Hearing me, they nodded unmistakably. Since I couldn't think of a nickname right away, I settled on collectively calling them the Twins. They liked it, and it stuck. I looked back at my Farfetch'd. He was absent-mindedly scratching his back with his stick. I decided his nickname could wait, too.

Heading down the road, I gave my starters a break and trained the Twins and my Farfetch'd. Farfetch'd was an excellent fighter, and the Twins weren't bad either. It was after training them a bit I started calling them Thing 1 and Thing 2. Sis was #1, and Bro was#2.

It was getting dark, so I decided to find a place to crash.

Eventually, I came to a house. This made me very relieved because I didn't have a tent. If your house is along the road, it's polite to let trainers stop there and have a meal and maybe sleep for the night. The trainer must be polite in return, because if they abuse their hospitality, it's totally fine to kick them out.

I knocked on the door and waited. I was startled when the door was answered- instead of a person getting the door, it was a pokemon.

"Mime!" the Mr. Mime declared, then shut the door. I waited a couple seconds longer. When the door opened again, a slighty tubby guy who looked like he was in his twenties appeared, Mr. Mime in tow.

"Hello, do you mind if I stay here tonight?" I asked.

"Sure! Come on in! All trainers are welcome in my home!" he said. I liked this guy already.

He introduced himself. "Name's Reyley. Yours?"

"Joseph Brian. Nice to meet you." I replyed. Reyley scooted his pokemon around his body with his hand. "This here's Mimien. Say hi, Mimien!"

"Mime."

"Good to meet you too," I greeted the pokemon. It brightened up a little.

"Want some dinner? You look hungry." Reyley said. His Mr. Mime ran over and set an extra place at the table. "Thanks," I said, and sat down to eat. I wasn't used to making friends this fast. I didn't actually have hardly any, unless pokemon count.

Over dinner conversation, I learned that Reyley works at Pewter City at the museum three days a week, and lives alone, with Mimien for company and protection. I also learned that Mimien is a little shy and warms up to people after a while. It's strange seeing a Mr. Mime blush because their cheeks are already red.

After thanking my host for dinner again, it was time for bed. Reyley and I brushed our teeth while Mimien made my bed on the couch. He did a great job and it was very comfy. I told Mimien so, and it made him pretty happy. He turned off the lights after we bid each other good night, and I drifted off to sleep.

**So there it is. Don't rail me too much about my Farfetch'd, please, but they **_**are**_** nearly extinct and Route 2 is the most likely place I can think of for them to appear naturally in Kanto. I may need to go back and edit this chapter, so please say so if you agree.**

**Well, that's about everything, so I guess that's Chapter 3. Please review.**

**More later,**

**Pokelegend**


	4. Chapter 4: Viridian Forest, Part 1

**Hello again, readers! I've had a recent spike in views, which is totally AWESOME. Most are in back-home USA, but I had a few from the UK and Australia. I already said this, but that's just plain cool. I just wish I could get a couple reviews out of it, though. (Hint, hint.) Anyway, I'm going on a vacation to the great state of Florida in a week or so, so expect me to totally disappear for two or three weeks due to the Florida trip and other week-long summer activities. I'd like to say more, but on to the story:**

I woke up the next morning to the smell of food cooking. It smelled good. I got off my bed on the couch and walked over to the table to find Mimien cooking away.

"Wow, that smells _good,_ Mimien!" The pokemon turned and smiled at me. This was the first time he had taken a compliment without blushing. He turned back to his work.

"Mornin'," said a bleary-eyed Reyley. I gave him a good morning back. He had appeared at the bottom of the stairs, still in his PJ's. He shuffled over to the table.

"Do you force Mimien to work for you?" I couldn't resist asking.

"Oh, no!" Reyley laughed positively, going into talkative mode.

"He's been my faithful and unselfish butler for as long as I can remember. He does it of his own free will, and doesn't take rewards unless I insist on them. Don't know what I'd do without him!"

"That's cool," I said, slightly relieved. I had asked kind of a dumb question. Reyley wasn't the kind of guy to force anyone or anything to be a slave.

There was some more breakfast conversation over the delicious eggs and sausage Mimien had prepared. At one point I brought up my journey. Reyley shared a long look with his Mr. Mime, then cleared his throat.

"Got an Abra?" he asked.

"Why?"

"Because Mimien would like to join you on your journey."

"What does this have to do with having an Abra?" I asked, confused.

"I'd like to trade." Mimien nodded his head.

"Wait, for Mimien?"

"Yep. He's grown attached to you, and I wanted him to go with some responsible trainer. I quit the journeying business a while back, and Mimien would like to range away from here. See, he thirsts for adventure. We've talked this though. Both me and Mimien feel it's for the best." Mimien nodded again, confirming.

"But why an Abra? Why not a different Mr. Mime?"

"I don't want another Mr. Mime, because I'm afraid of the different personality. And I'm not comfortable with the whole _replacement_ thing. Plus, Abra has an evolution chain and teleportation powers. It would save me a long walk though Viridian Forest to get to work. Also: I find I'm more comfortable with psychics, and I want a little variety." The pokemon seated at the table had been bobbing his head at various points throughout the exchange.

"I don't have an Abra. Yet." I said. Reyley drooped in his seat.

"I'll try to find one, though," I thought for a minute. Then an idea sprang to mind.

"I know!"

"What?" He looked hopeful again.

"I don't have an Abra, but I do have other pokemon. How about this: I'l leave two of my pokemon with you untill I catch an Abra. Then I'll teleport back here to complete the trade and you can give my pokemon back." Reyley thought.

"It's a done deal," he said. I realized I had not specified who to leave. I would leave Squeaker and Birdie, but they were back in the PC system. So that meant I had to give up part of my current team. Ash was my very first. Definitely not. Hydro Gun and Bossplant were my other two starters. They were a gift from Caleb, and besides that, the Grass/Water/Fire combo provided by my starters was too good to give up for a while. I needed the variety. The Twins were an option. I didn't want to part ways with them with their budding potential, but the only one left was my cool Farfetch'd, and a) I might meet someone who could tell me what was different about him, and b) he was the only one left out of my team.

I finally settled on the Twins. I sent them out of their pokeballs at the same time. I hated to separate them, not even by letting one out first. They sort of needed each other. They stared up at Reyley intently.

"Wow, I like them already!" he said.

"Meet the twins. They're siblings, if it isn't already obvious. This is Thing 1," I pointed at the female. "And this is Thing 2," My finger moved to indicate her brother.

"Okay, Mimien, you sure ya wanna go though with this?" The pokemon nodded enthusiastically.

"Okee dokee, he's all yours."

I was about to leave to head toward Viridian Forest, when I remembered something.

"May I use your phone?" I asked.

"Sure."

First I called to check in with Professor Oak.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Professor, this is Joseph. You won't believe what I caught on Route 2."

"A Snorlax?" he guessed.

"No. Think a little smaller. And rarer."

"I give up."

"A Farfetched." The Professor started coughing on the phone.

"Professor? You okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine," he choked out. "You just caught me by surprise. A Farfetch'd?"

"Yup."

"Joseph, there haven't been any reports of a wild Farfetch'd being caught in sixty years or more! They're nearly extinct! You just found it?"

"It just stepped off the path and eyed me warily. So I fought it and managed to catch it." He muttered something that sounded like 'unbelievable.' "I also caught two Nidoran who are twin siblings."

"That's nice..." I heard some more shocked, inward exclamations. The professor _never_ acts like this. It's next to impossible to work him up, but then again, finding a wild Farfetch'd and catching it is next to impossible, too.

"Uhhhh... Thanks Professor. Bye."

"Goodbye, Joseph... a Farfetch'd... I can't believe it... " Click.

Next I checked on Ash. (My friend, not my Charmander.) I dialed his cell number and after a couple rings he picked up.

"Hello, this is AAAAAAAaaaaaashhh-" he ended abruptly.

"You alright?"

"Sorta. My Pikachu keEEEEEEEEEeeps-!" He stopped again, and I heard crackling noises and sizzling. "-shocking me. He won't go into his pokeball." That would explain the rope earlier.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"I'm getting used to-" More crackling. "-it. I think he's getting tired and warming up to me. Hey, WHAT ARE YOU-" Snow. The phone went dead. I had a new thing to call Ash about later.

After saying my last goodbyes to the Twins and Reyley, I headed out back to Route 2.

I trained Mimien a bit. He was pretty experienced, but a bit rusty. After warming up a bit, though, he was very formidable. My Farfetch'd was also kicking butt. My trusty starters were getting pretty good, too. My team was going good all around.

I was looking to catch another pokemon, because the two-for-one exchange had left me with a slot open on my belt.

Eventually I came to a bunch of trees stretching as far as I could see. The path quickly wound out of sight. A sign next to the path indicated that this was Viridian Forest. I started in.

The tree cover provided plenty of shade, soon plunging the area into near-darkness with flecks of light escaping to the forest floor through the trees. It was pretty uneventful till I spotted a pokemon just off the path. A Caterpie. I sent out Bossplant. I didn't want to whup it too hard, like with Ash(Charmander) or Farfetch'd, because type advantage could mean a KO here.

"Bossplant, Vine Whip!" The vines came up from his bulb and lashed the small bug. It wasn't looking so good after such brutalizing, but it acted anyway. It used string shot and wrapped up my Bulbasaur.

I tossed a pokeball. The capture was easy, almost anticlimactically so. I sent out my new Caterpie, and quickly decided on the nickname Bud.

A little ways further, I saw a Weedle. Slightly trickier than Caterpie, this wormlike critter was also part Poison type. I sent out Mimien. He used Barrier and narrowly avoided a Poison Sting. After a Confusion attack, Weedle was an easy capture. After the pokeball clicked, it energized and faded. This is what happens when you go over six pokemon- the extra is automatically sent to the PC.

After a while I stopped for lunch. I unpacked the food and sent out my Pokemon. While I snacked on crackers, they happily helped themselves to pokemon food. Ash snuggled up right under my arm while he ate, and Bossplant curled up in my lap after finishing his. Mimien entertained the other pokemon. Hydro Gun and Farfetch'd looked a bit bored, though.

After lunch I kept on heading down the path. I fought a couple wild pokemon with Bud to toughen him up a bit. Eventually I came to another trainer. He had a wide hat and a bug net.

"When trainer's eyes meet, it means a Pokemon Battle!" he proclaimed.

"Let's go. Ash, I choose you!" My fiery reptile popped out of his ball.

"Go, Weedle!"

"Ash, use Ember!"

"Poison Sting, Weedle!" The fire flew from my Charmander's mouth, blowing Weedle out of the air before it could connect it's poison sting. Weedle wasn't looking so good now. The bug catcher changed tactics.

"Weedle, String Shot!" I let Ash handle this- he was plenty smart and skilled. He grabbed his tail from behind him and burned about 60% of the sticky string away before it could reach him. The rest of the string clung to his scales, not at all helping Weedle because it didn't wrap around Ash or hold him to the ground. Ash finished the worm with another Ember. The kid swore and sent out a Metapod. This stretched out the battle a bit because it kept using harden and reducing the amount of damage Ash could do, but it couldn't do anything else.

Eventually, it fainted. The kid was furious. He shoved the prize money into my hands and stormed off.

I decided I needed a break, so I settled down for a nap at the base of a tree and drifted off.

**Not really the best ending for the chapter, but I needed some way to cut it off and not get over-long. Hope you enjoyed it, and expect another chapter soon. One more thing, I will never abandon this fic. I might vanish for a while, but you can rest assured I'll be back. Please review!**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Pokelegend**


	5. Chapter 5: Viridian Forest, Part 2

**As previously explained, I'm going to Florida in a couple days (Funny if it's already after I get back), so don't expect to hear from me for two, maybe three weeks. Speaking of which, if I disappear for a month or two without explanation, I'll be back. I promise I'll never abandon this fic.**

I woke up from my catnap with two big, round black eyes staring into mine, about two inches from my face. I involuntarily discovered that, if sufficiently startled, one can leap three feet in the air, staying parallel with the ground, without the soles of their feet ever touching the ground.

A yellow blur practically flew off of me onto a branch on the tree above in a similar manner. The small(ish) rodent stared down at me with wide eyes. It had long ears with black tips, and a jagged, lightning bolt-shaped tail that was brown at the base. A Pikachu.

I recovered my wits and looked up at the curious creature. It looked back at me. Pikachus are uncommon, possible but not plausible to find in Viridian forest. Virtually impossible to find in the wild anywhere else.

You can guess what I did next. I sent out Bossplant, because he had the advantage of resisting electricity. Again, I had no ground-type pokemon or moves at this point.

"Bossplant, use Stun Spore!" The small seed pokemon opened the bulb on his back and shot a cloud of spores at the treed electric mouse. It dropped from its perch to evade the burst.

"Now try Sleep Powder!" Again the bulb popped open, and the fluffy seeds that issued forth managed to catch up to the rodent. Just before it conked out, the Pikachu Thundershocked Bossplant. It actually did more damage than I thought it would, but with a potion, my Bulbasaur was fine. I took advantage of the wild pokemon's slumber and caught it in a pokeball. It was too deep asleep to resist much. The ball energized and went to the PC.

My nap long over, I began back on my way down the road. I walked a ways before a kid leaped from the bushes and landed in front of me. He brandished a long, curved ninja sword. He swung it at me a couple times and I evaded haphazardly.

"Who the heck are you and why are you attacking me?" I yelled at the helmeted attacker.

"I am a Samurai of great renown! I wish to test your skills against mine in a pokemon battle!" he declared. "Prepare to defend thyself!" His use of words weirded me out a bit.

"Okay, fine. As long as you don't attack me with your sword again. Some way to meet a random person coming down the path." I grumbled as I sent out Ash. I guessed that, as an inhabiter of Viridian Forest, he uses Bug pokemon, and I wanted a type advantage.

"Pinsir! Engage the foe in battle!" the kid cried, and with a flourish sent out his large bug. I had guessed right.

The oversized bug glared down at my small, fiery reptile. I had to hand it to Ash, he stood his ground quite bravely.

"Ash, use Smokescreen!" Ash blew a film of smoke at his adversary.

"A simple trifle. You use worthless tactics. Pinsir, Tackle your opponent!" Pinsir charged recklessly forward.

"Ash, use Growl!" Ash gave an endearing growl that calmed Pinsir down a bit, but did not abate his onslaught. The large beetle leaped the rest of the distance, and Ash rolled out of the way. Pinsir was now on a crash course for my legs. I dove out of the way and the bug landed in a heap on his ugly face, then rose.

"Ash, Ember!" the flame flew to Pinsir's feet, lighting him on fire. The insect stormed around before falling down, utterly defeated. The Samurai kid recalled him, putting out the fire.

"That does it! Metapod, go!" the disappointed youth snarled. I sighed. Metapod was very annoying because although it can't do much, its Harden technique made it take a long time to drop it.

"Ash, return. Go, Farfetch'd!" My ducklike pokemon flew from its ball. Metapod proceeded to do what it does best: it Hardened.

"Farfetch'd, Swords Dance." Farfetch'd complied, getting a step ahead of Metapod. In the time it took to use the move, the bug pokemon had Hardened again. But with two more Swords Dances, my bird pokemon could deal some serious damage. Metapod as only halfway to resisting it.

"Now use Aerial Ace!" Farfetch'd complied, and Metapod went down. The Samurai was speechless.

After collecting my prize money from the kid, I continued down the road some more. Continuing down the road seemed like all I ever did around here. But that's usually what happens after a major event for me.

Time passed uneventfully. I didn't see any more wild pokemon on the way. somewhere along the winding path, it got quiet. I stopped for a moment and listened. Hearing nothing, I continued onward. Then I heard an echo of a shout through the trees. I stopped again, and heard more yells. They were getting closer. I turned around, and sent out Ash just in case. I saw the Samurai I battled earlier running as fast as he could, trailed closely by my human friend Ash. (This may get confusing.) There was also some redhead on their heels. At first I thought the girl was chasing them, but then I saw the swarm of Beedrill.

"Run!" they all cried in near-unison. They were still a ways up the path, but they were gaining pretty fast. The Beedrill looked almost close enough to go for the kill. The Samurai kid, though panicked and winded, kept his wits about him.

"I have a cabin we can go to for refuge! Follow us if you value your life!" he yelled as he blew past me. I caught some slipstream from Ash and the redhead as they ran past, too. Instead of running after them, I stood my ground.

"I'll buy you some time!" I hollered, grabbing four pokeballs from my belt. I tossed them forward and out came Hydro Gun, Bossplant, Farfetch'd and Mimien, accompanying my Charmander in the ensuing conflict. Only Bud, my Caterpie, stayed put in his ball on my belt.

The fight was tremendous. Ash struck Beedrill down left and right with Ember, fending them off with his tail when they got close enough to sting him. Hydro Gun blew multiple wasps out of the air at once with Hydro Pump. Bossplant kept them off of himself by lashing the pests with Vine Whip and inserting a Solarbeam here and there. Farfetch'd was amazing. He took a bunch of stings to complete two or three Swords Dances, then took to the air crumpling Beedrill with each blow from his stick. None could touch him as he smashed them out of the air. Mimien helped out the best he could, protecting me, my pokemon, and himself with Barriers. The Beedrill were mostly inhibited by these, but still managed to swarm around them. Mimien could only create so many at a time. He also used Confusion a few times, occasionally causing the Beedrill to turn on each other. This simply added to their anger more than inflicting damage.

My pokemons' efforts were valiant, especially Ash's, but they soon began to wear down. Mimien's Barriers were helpful, but the Beedrill persisted to swerve around them and sting me. It hurt like heck, and after only 30 seconds I called a retreat to the cabin. I rounded all my pokemon up into their pokeballs except Hydro Gun, who refused, opting instead to bodyguard me. His forceful jets of water left many Beedrill down for the count, but they made the rest angrier. I scooped up my water turtle and ran with him as he fired more powerful blasts of water behind me, saving me from a multitude of stings. I left behind an armada of fainted Beedrill, especially were I had taken my stand.

I got to the cabin just in time, and dove in just as the Samurai kid slammed the door behind me. My Squirtle passed out from exhaustion. I just about did myself. A few Beedrill managed to get in behind me, but I sent out my Charmander, who promptly took care of them. I returned Hydro Gun and Ash to their pokeballs.

"That was a close one," panted (human)Ash. He was still out of breath, as was the redhead. Ash's Pikachu, who still accompanied him out of a pokeball, was covered in stings. Samurai kid was apparently pretty fit, because he had already recovered. He moved to the window. The Beedrill clacked against the glass angrily, but couldn't break through.

"I have never seen so many marauding Beedrill before. Our captors are now relatively small in number, but they are being reinforced." he reported.

"Who are you?" I asked the redhead.

"I'm Misty." It sounded vaguely familiar. I decided not to press the issue. Ash glanced over his shoulder.

"She's been following me ever since I wrecked her bike," he explained.

"You still owe me," she scolded. Her cheeks reddened.

"How did this with the Beedrill all get started?" I asked. Ash explained that he had been trying to catch a Weedle, but it got away. Then he fought the Samurai and they ended up Metapod vs. Metapod. During the battle, the Beedrill showed up, abducting Ash's Metapod and chasing them. They wouldn't have made it had I not saved their skins.

I was the only one of us humans who got stung. Antidotes and potions brought our pokemon to near good as new, but they still needed more special treatment.

The Beedrill's rage didn't eventually abate as expected. Rather, they got angrier that they couldn't enter. Their forces increased, added to as more insects came from the forest, just as the Samurai had reported. Soon the windows were so crowded by vicious bugs, you couldn't hardly see anything outside. We had to do _something_ or they would eventually get in. We couldn't think of anything besides a rescue mission for Metapod. We came up with a plan for it and put it into action.

Mimien was positioned by the door, hands up, ready for action. Ash(Charmander), stood beside him along with Squirtle. (human)Ash's Pikachu was stationed at the top of the door. I grasped the knob. Turning it, I yelled, "NOW!"

Mimien erected Barriers, and entry attempts were frustrated by Embers and Hydro Pumps. The wet Beedrill tried to flood over the door instead, getting shocked badly by Pikachu. Mimien formed a solid box around himself with barriers, grabbed my Charmander and bolted through the door. I slammed it. Hydro Gun and Pikachu rounded up the few Beedrill who had made it in.

We waited. If the Beedrill were mad before, they were _furious_ now. They could have broken the glass had they all hammered at once, yet they were too crazed to coordinate.

Eventually the door burst open, and Mimien forced his way in, blocking many Beedrill with barriers erected outside the door. Our pokemon KO'd them before they got very far. Samurai Kid leaped foreward and slammed the door.

Mimien handed Metapod back to his owner. Ash thanked him profusely.

"I should get me a Mr. Mime," he said to himself. I suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, Ash, what was with the phone call earlier today? You yelled something, then the line went dead."

"Oh, yeah." He dug around in his bag and pulled out his phone. It was fried.

"My mom's gonna kill me." Pikachu grinned at his handiwork.

We waited for a second. Metapod looked out the window at the swarming Beedrill. They completely blocked the window now, so only tiny flecks of light escaped through. He scowled. I could only tell because his eye looked angry. It clenched shut. Metapod glowed softly from the inside in Ash's hands.

"Wha?" cried Ash, "What's Metapod doing?" I was the first to realize it.

"Metapod's forcing evolution!" I announced. Metapod's glowing eye retreated from it's hole and it's outer skin cracked open. A shining Butterfree emerged, and its white glow faded as it hovered in front of us. It looked pretty impressive. Ash now held the husk that used to be Metapod.

"Lady and gentlemen, I have an idea." I said. "We escape now." I sent out Bossplant.

"Butterfree's sleep powder isn't enough to overcome that swarm," I gestured to the window, darkened by the oppressive bodies of the Beedrill, "neither is Bossplant's. But the two combined could drop all the Beedrill!"

Everyone agreed. I sent out Hydro Gun for security, then threw the door open.

The Beedrill never knew what hit them. We ended up with a massive pile of sleeping, prickly bodies we had to aviod crushing as we slipped through the door. Butterfree and Bossplant felt pretty good about themselves. Hydro gun hadn't released a single drop of water, due to a lack of need.

We were long safe in Pewter City before the Beedrill had a chance to wake up.

**This was a nice, climactic near-ending to (hopefully)hold you readers over. This'll be my last chapter for a while. Hope you liked it! I've been getting more hits from other countries! Still no reviews from it. (HINT HINT!) I don't have much else to say, so I guess this is it.**

**Signed,**

**Pokelegend**


	6. Chapter 6: Pewter

**The wait is finally over! Chapter 6 is here! I hate stopping my story so long, especially so early when it feels like killing it in its infancy. I'll try to put in as many chapters as I can untill school starts in the fall. I have also gone back and edited all of my previous chapters. I made this chapter lengthy to compensate for the big wait. By the way, thanks for following this far, reader! Now on to the long-awaited chapter:**

After we finally caught our breath, we began to more formally introduce ourselves. I already knew Ash, but got to talk to Misty a bit more and found out she specializes in water pokemon. I began to develop a sneaking suspicion that Misty was hiding something. Variety is key to having a successful team, and you have to be pretty strong to go without it. I also learned Ash has a Pigeotto too, along with his Pikachu and new Butterfree.

After twenty minutes or so, the Samurai said his goodbyes and went back into the forest, explaining that the Beedrill would forget all about us by the time they woke up.

Ash immediately headed for Pewter Gym, tailed by Misty. She was telling him he really shouldn't rush things and that he could borrow some of her pokemon if he wanted to. He turned her down. Ash can be kind of reckless sometimes. I knew for a fact Brock, Pewter's Gym Leader, had a total type advantage on both of Ash's pokemon, because anyone who has studied up on the Gym Leaders can tell you Brock always favors his Onix. Pikachu would be helpless against Onix's Ground type, and its Rock type could totally crush Butterfree. And I highly doubt Buterfree's Sleep Powder would do much. And then Pigeotto has no hope either.

I sat down in the grass, resting my weary feet. After about five minutes, Ash come out looking slightly put out. Misty followed with a smug look on her face.

"Lemme guess: you lost." I said as he walked up to me.

"Pikachu couldn't do anything. I had to forfeit to keep Butterfree from getting pounded."

"You gave up?" It didn't sound like an Ashlike thing to do. Ash would normally try to still win and end up getting Butterfree squashed.

"It was Brock's idea! He had a point anyway. I couldn't win and I'd rather not have Butterfree hurt. Pigeotto couldn't do anything to Onix anyway."

"You should train more and catch more Pokemon. If you had more variety you could have taken him." Ash looked down. I could tell that he could tell that this was good advice.

"Come on, let's go get Pikachu fixed up." We headed for the Pokemon Center. We were all pretty surprised to see Nurse Joy behind the counter. Ash voiced his surprise first.

"Nurse Joy?! Weren't you back at Viridian?" The nurse laughed.

"No, I'm a different Nurse Joy. We are all cousins and sisters and such, and we all look the same. There is at least one Nurse Joy at each Pokemon Center. By the way, your Pikachu looks like it needs some serious care. Let's take it to the back."

Ash and Misty followed her to the back rooms. I opted to stay behind and use the PC. First I put Bud into the machine and took out Weedle. I sent him out of his ball and got to know him a bit. I decided to call him Sting. After spending a couple more minutes with him, I reluctantly put him back in the PC and pulled out Pikachu.

I sent him out. He wasn't too happy about being cooped up in the PC for so long, and shocked me a bit to give me a piece of his mind. I apologized as best I could and gave him a sweet berry. He forgave me and did his best to eat the berry slowly. After a couple seconds he begged for more. I only had one and he had just eaten it, so I just shrugged. He pouted. I contemplated nicknames. Sparky would be good, but it was just too common. Zapper? Nah. Lightning? I didn't like that either. I thought harder. Chu? Maybe Chewy? He did eat that berry pretty fast. I still didn't like the sound of that. I thought some more.

"How about I call you Shocker?" I asked him. He smiled.

"Shocker it is, then!" I proclaimed.

After a little bit of time spent with my freshly nicknamed Pikachu, I decided to go take a look at Ash's. He still didn't look so good, but not as bad as he did right after fighting Brock. Shocker hopped down from his perch on my shoulder and patted Pikachu's small hand comfortingly, then squeezed it. An electric charge ran through both Pikachus, and Ash's sat up, still looking hurt but feeling a lot better. Satisfied, Shocker leaped back up on my shoulder.

"Thanks, Pikachu!" Ash said to Shocker. His Pikachu looked slightly confused.

"Pika, Pika Pi!" Said Shocker.

"He's nicknamed Shocker," I said. It was confusing enough with how my Charmander was nicknamed.

"Pika." both Pikachus said in unison.

"See you all, I gotta go train if I want to beat Brock," I said, patting Ash's Pikachu on the head, and left. I headed for the woods. I generally stayed away from beedrill, but they all ignored me when I bumped into them. apparently Samurai kid was right. Training went well. I mostly focused on Hydro Gun and Bossplant, since they would be my biggest type assets in the upcoming Gym battle, but I made sure to spread the training around to my other pokemon in case my dependence on Grass and Water advantages failed me.

Ash responded to his training well, building up strength and firepower. His tail flame grew slightly larger after every battle. Farfetch'd grew better too. He was already a fierce, swift fighter, but he was getting to where he didn't need to use Swords Dance as much. Mimien enjoyed the exercise of his powers and began to land one-hit KOs.

When I felt ready and my Pokemon no longer seemed to have any trouble against the wild pokemon, I headed back th Pewter.

I heard suspicious noises from inside the hydroelectric plant and went to check and see if there were any Team Rocket in there. I hadn't seen any for a while, and was starting to feel a little nervous. There had been a lot at Viridian, but suspiciously few afterwards.

I walked up to the door and stuck my head in. Ash and some guy I'd never seen before were hooking Pikachu up to the generator. Looking around, I couldn't see any Team Rocket in sight. I took one last look at Ash and the stranger, then ducked out, not even caring to make my presence known. If they made fools of themselves, it was their own business. If they were onto something, I might mess it up.

I went right up to the gym from there and walked in the door. The floor was bare earth with rocks jutting up here and there, and their was a large pokeball symbol on the floor.

"Brock, I challenge you!" I proclaimed loudly. A young guy took the center of the gym on the big pokeball symbol.

"Challenge accepted," he said. "Geodude, Go!" Out came the rocky, spherical pokemon.

"Hydro Gun, I choose you!" I cried, and threw out his ball. He practically flew out of it and landed on his feet in a confident, defiant pose.

"Geodude, Rollout!" Geodude spun on a horizontal axis, and rolled through the air toward my Squirtle.

"Hydro Pump! Now!" Just before Geodude could collide with my water turtle, the forceful jet of water smashed it back against the wall hard. Geodude didn't give up just yet, and continued to spin in spite of the high-pressure water. Hydro Gun ran out and had to rest a second, and the small rock pokemon came barreling toward him.

"Hydro Gun, use Withdraw!" He snapped into his shell just in time. Geodude smashed him across the room, and he slammed against a wall. His opponent thundered toward him once more, gaining even more speed and force. Hydro Gun got shakily to his feet, having been rattled around in his shell. Geodude was instants away. I had to act quickly.

"Rapid Spin!" was all I had time to yell. Hydro Gun leaped up, popped into his shell, and spun horizontally. Geodude smashed into him, abruptly changing course and smashing into the wall face first again, and sticking there. Hydro Gun had been knocked sideways, and had the good fortune of stopping before colliding with anything.

Shaken and a bit tired, Hydro Gun rose, cracked his turtle knuckles, and assumed a stance like a sumo wrestler. Geodude didn't move. We waited a second, then Geodude pushed himself out of the wall, fell to the floor, and passed out.

"Geodude, return!" Brock said. He kept his cool, even after losing his first pokemon. This made me slightly nervous. Hydro Gun was weak, but he kept going, and I needed him to fight Onix. Speak of the devil!

"Onix, go!" yelled Brock, sending out the giant snake of stone. It towered over Hydro Gun, who was clearly scared but bravely opted not to show it.

"Onix! Pound!" The great rocky beast lifted its tail.

"Hydro Gun! Rapid spin out of the way! Withdraw if you can't dodge, Hydro Pump if you can!" The huge stony tail came down hard, and Hydro Gun was nowhere to be seen. I feared for the worst for a second, but then saw Onix was confused, too. Then I saw the blur pounding and ricocheting of the walls and striking Onix. The great snake roared and swatted his tiny foe out of the air with his tail. The small pokemon did a summersault and barely managed to land on his feet. He stumbled. Onix shifted.

"Onix! Earthquake!" shouted Brock.

"Hydro Pump! Now!"

Onix was doused in high-pressure water as he pounded the ground hard and the floor rocked and shook. Hydro Gun was too weak to go on, and fainted.

"Good job, Hydro Gun. Return!" I called him back.

"Bossplant! Show that pile of debris how you got your nickname!" Out he came, looking rather small in relation to his huge foe.

"Please, no trash talking. Onix, Pound again!" said Brock. Onix raised his tail once more.

"Bossplant! Charge up a Solarbeam and use Vine Whip to dodge!" Again the great stone tail came thundering down. My tiny seed pokemon snapped off the ground using his vines, barely avoiding the attack. He glowed from inside his bulb with solar energy, then fired off a coursing blast of Grass-type energy. Onix, already weakened by Hydro Gun's desperate efforts and at a total type advantage as Hydro Gun had exploited before, came crashing to the gym floor, totally defeated.

Brock looked thunderstruck for the first time. He returned his Onix to its ball, and numbly handed me my prize money and a Boulder Badge. He finally managed to speak.

"Your Squirtle knows Hydro Pump. Your Bulbasaur already has Solarbeam. Were they specially bred?" he exclaimed, recovering his wits.

"Yep. I have connections. Ever heard of Caleb Brian?" I pulled out my badge case and placed my first badge in its place. I smiled at it.

"Heard of him?! He is a renowned breeder! He defeated me in battle! You know him?!"

"I should. He's my brother, after all!" Brock looked shocked again, and after recovering for a second time, remarked, "You're sure following in his footsteps. Hey, there's your friend again."

"Brock, I want a rematch!" Ash called. His Pikachu looked confident.

"One minute, please?" I asked Ash, and he quieted down. I turned back to Brock.

"Any training tips?" I inquired.

"Slow down your pace. Train your pokemon against each other, not just wild pokemon. And as always, love your pokemon. They are your friends."

"One more thing. I need a nickname for a Farfetch'd. Any ideas?"

"A FARFETCH'D?! You have a Farfetch'd? Can you show me?"

"Yep." I sent out the topic of conversation from his ball.

"How about Fencer?" he suggested, recovering yet again.

"I like it. He does use Swords Dance a lot." The bird pokemon bobbed his head in satisfaction. "Fetch'd."

After we finished talking, I watched Ash somehow beat Brock with his successfully supercharged Pikachu. I bumped into the stranger from the plant on the way out the door.

"Oh, hello, my name's Flint. Did Brock beat you as usual?" I showed him the inside of my badge case as a response. "No way," he mumbled, then went on into the gym without further ado.

I decided to give my pokemon a break and go to the Pewter Museum. I checked into the front counter and went in. I sent out all my pokemon as soon as I could.

We had a blast. Everyone enjoyed looking at the fossils, most of all Mimien. I wondered what I would do if I obtained one. I _could_ give it to the museum for money, but I already had more than my share of prize money. I supposed I'd cross that bridge if/when I come to it.

We all felt better and more rested when we left the museum. It was late, so I spent some of my prize money on a hotel room. Not wanting to waste my money, I let out my pokemon to sleep wherever they wanted in the room. Ash curled up on top of the heater, careful to keep his tail flame away from the curtains or any other flammable objects. Bossplant and Fencer reclined on the end of my bed. Fencer hugged his leek like a teddy bear. Hydro Gun fulled up the tub in the bathroom halfway and slept peacefully in his shell underwater. This miffed me a bit, but every half hour he woke up and groggily went to the surface to breathe. Mimien slid into the other bed, and Shocker flopped over my stomach. Mimien began to snore, and I drifted off to sleep as the events of the day caught up to me.

**I'm probably gonna end a lot of chapters that way, with falling asleep. If you've read the story this far and like it, please give me a review and maybe recommend this story on Facebook or another site. If you don't like it, please politely tell me why in review form. Remember, I mostly stick to the games, but include some slightly distorted material from the anime. I think this is a good place to stop for now.**

**Signed,**

**Pokelegend**


	7. Chapter 7: Going Down Route 3

**And I'm back. I'll be nice and give you a warning. I'm about to conduct a test. If you're reading this, good job, you already passed. Thank you, and I apologize for what I'm about to do:**

I woke up the next morning feeling slightly annoyed. Why aren't people reviewing this story?! Do they not see the begging and pleading in the boldface pre- and post- chapter notes!? What if they're not reading them?! Reviewing is so quick and easy! You can just say if you like it or not!

Ha! Got you! If you just skipped the boldface notes and right to the story, shame on you. You just failed the test mentioned in the notes I wrote!

These are still the notes, but for the test to work, the notes have to look like the story, therefore not boldface. Sorry for all that, don't hate me too much for it, please read the notes and review, now on to the story for real:

After checking out of the hotel the following morning, I took one last look around Pewter before getting ready to leave. I bumped into Reyley on the way out and we talked. I sent out Mimien and Reyley let me see the Twins. They were happy to see me, as well as Mimien was glad to see Reyley.

I left Pewter after saying my goodbyes to Reyley and continued on to the East, to Route 3. I adopted a much slower pace this time, taking care to stop and train my pokemon companions often, against wild pokemon, each other, and trainer pokemon. The other trainers I met on the road generally had Pidgey, Spearow, Caterpies, Weedles, and one even had a Jigglypuff. They were all the kind of stuff found in the wild around Route 3, just a little stronger.

I bumped into a wild Jigglypuff on the path along the way. It stepped from the bushes at just the wrong moment, and I tripped over it, falling face first in the dirt. I got up and faced the little pink Pokemon.

"Bossplant, go!" I called out, and out came the small seed Pokemon. "Use Vine Whip to hold it down!"

The pink creature turned to flee, but got wrapped up in Vine Whip. It tried to use Sing attack, but the vines acted like a gag. "Now use Sleep Powder!"

Jigglypuff had a taste of its own medicine. After catching the slumbering Pokemon, I decided to call it Marshmallow. I had a full deck of cards team-wise, so the new arrival was sent to the PC.

Eventually, I came to a slope. At the top was a building with a red roof and a pokeball symbol. Next to it was the gaping mouth of a cave in the side of a mountain. I had arrived at my next checkpoint.

**I needed a nice, short chapter **_**sometime**_**. After all, they can't all be long. This chapter may need more editing later, but for now it will serve. Sorry for the test at the beginning of the chapter, but I feel it was necessary. I promise I will never do it again. In other news, I have a poll I would like you to vote on, and I would also like you to review.**

**That's all,**

**Pokelegend**


	8. Chapter 8: Encounters of Mt Moon

**Hello again, readers! You must be dedicated to get this far, so thanks! Broke 200 views! Thanks for that, too! Hope you've gotten over the test from the last chapter. I hope you'll forgive me, if you haven't already. Anyway, kudos to you for reading the notes! I also hope you'll review the story. I would at least like to hear what you think. A review doesn't have to be in more than five words! You can do it in less than a minute! Alright, on to the story. I've ranted plenty enough.**

I climbed up the slope to the Pokemon center. As I was reviving my pokemon inside, a guy tapped my shoulder.

"Would you like to buy a Magikarp? They are very valuable and lay lots of eggs. I can sell you one dirt cheap and you can breed it to make up for the small cost!" he said cheerily with a slight accent.

"How much?" I asked. I knew Magikarp are next to useless, that they only learn Splash(which does absolutely _nothing_) and Tackle(Which is hardly impressive coming off of such a weak pokemon). Still, Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, which is contradictorily strong.

"500 Poke dollars." A ripoff. I knew to avoid shady dealers, and this guy was no exception.

"No thanks." Before he could protest, I had collected my stuff and was out the door.

I walked up to the cave opening and read the sign out front. Mount Moon. I went in. The place was dark inside, but I could see a ways. A pokemon scuttled out of sight.

A couple of Zubat attacked me here and there, but Shocker and Mimien made short work of them. I also saw a couple Paras, too, but they scurried away. I continued to go down the endless passageways, doubling back whenever I reached a dead end. Quickly growing bored, I sent out my pokemon and started a round of training. They were getting much better. Ash was showing huge prowess, as well as Hydro Gun and Bossplant. Fencer was also getting pretty good, too. Mimien was about at twice the amount of Barriers he could generate in Viridian Forest. And Shocker wasted a bunch of my potions on Bossplant.

As I moved deeper into the small mountain, I saw a small, pink pokemon down the tunnel. At first I could have sworn it was another Jigglypuff, but as I got closer I could see the brown ears and small, pink wings. A Clefairy.

"Go, Fencer!" The small ducklike pokemon assumed battle stance. Clefairy looked thoughtful for a moment, then ran up and used Pound. Unfazed, Fencer smacked it away with his stick.

"Fencer, Aerial Ace!" I called. Fencer moved with blinding speed and struck the small wild fairy pokemon. It sounded its discontent. Then it used Metronome. At this point I knew Fencer could be in trouble. The attack turned into Zap Cannon, but it missed completely. I threw a couple pokeballs at the tired Clefairy, but it kept breaking out. "Fencer, return. Bossplant, I choose you! Sleep Powder!"

The next ball successfully kept hold of the target. As the ball energized, I decided to nickname my new pokemon later.

As I moved farther down the tunnel, I again wondered why I haven't seen any Team Rocket since Viridian. It was right about that point I ran into one. He only had a Rattata and a couple Poison-type pokemon that Mimien dealt with easily. The guy ran off screaming revenge. Bring it on, doofus. I'll be waiting to teach you your lesson again.

At some point I saw another Zubat hanging from the cave ceiling and decided to engage it in battle and catch it. I sent out Shocker, and the light from him popping from his ball awoke the slumbering bat. It fluttered right past Shocker and bit my hand. I punched it off and applied pressure to the bleeding wound.

"Shocker, what was that? You just let it go!" I groused, swatting at the Zubat. Shocker shook his head, yawned, and went down for a nap. I threw a pokeball at the Zubat, but it popped right back out. Instead of fleeing, it called down the cave. I slapped at it some more when a huge cloud of Zubat barreled down the tunnel and swarmed me and Shocker. Shocker sat bolt upright, but it was too late. The nasty flying critters were latching on to us all over the place. I felt one big throb of agony and saw a flash of light. Suddenly I didn't feel the oppressive little animals all over me anymore. They were fleeing down the tunnel from whence they came. Shocker had applied his nickname directly to the Zubat, and to me. I looked at the bite marks. They looked all nasty, but were cauterised by the electricity, and after I cleaned the blood off were actually not that noticable. I would be in a heap of trouble if they had known Poison Fang, but fortunately they hadn't. Still, it had hurt like heck. Fortunately for me, though, the Zubat had only bitten my exposed skin, so I had minimal staining on my clothes.

After I finished cleaning Shocker off, I pulled out a bottle of red stuff I had bought at the mart in Pewter. "Here you go, buddy. You earned it." Shocker's little black eyes grew wide, and he snatched the bottle from my hand and began downing the contents. I had read that Pikachu love ketchup. I gave my electric rodent some time with the bottle, but when I went to take it back, he squirted me with it. I decided to let him finish it. In the meantime, he walked with me, zapping Zubat along the way. When he got done, he fell asleep, and I returned him to his ball.

After a while, I found some kid chipping at the stone walls with a mallet.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Looking for fossils."

"You know you won't find any." He looked up at me and glared.

"You know what? How about a Pokemon Battle. That should settle our differences."

"You're on. Go, Ash!" Ash flew from his ball.

"Go Voltorb. Teach this guy a lesson. Use Rapid Spin!"

"Ash! Ember!" Ash blew a fiery spurt at the spherical foe, but Voltorb didn't seem to be affected. It spun forward and collided with my Charmander. Ash staggered, but recovered quickly.

"Now use Smokescreen!" Ash blew a heavy, dark fog over voltorb, throwing off its Thunder Wave attack. "Time for Scratch Attack."

Ash flew forward and surprised me by taking Voltorb down with a final blow. The other kid was shocked, too.

"Alright, Magnemite, your turn." Out it flew. I smiled. This obviously troubled the other trainer.

"Try Ember now." Ash pulled off a spectacular one-hit KO.

The other guy looked troubled. "I don't have any money. I do have a couple of fossils, though."

"I have plenty money. I'll accept that form of payment."

"Okay, you can pick one of these. By the way, my name's Jillian." He held out his hand. Two differently shaped fossils lay on it.

"Joseph." I recognized the fossils. I had read about them. The one on the left was a Helix Fossil. the other was a Dome Fossil. I took the one to the right.

A little later I stumbled across a Paras and caught it easily, as Paras is kinda weak. I nicknamed it Bugs.

Somewhere near the middle of the mountain, I saw some dude in a lab coat sitting on a pile of broken space rock. He was surrounded by Clafairy. I decided to avoid him.

Somewhere along the line, I realized my friend Ash was ahead of me. I decided I'd catch up to him later, because training is more important for now. I felt really tired at this point, so I went down for a quick nap. I woke up again sometime later, realizing I had to keep moving. I checked my stuff to see if any was missing, but no pokemon or person had taken anything. Hurrying down the tunnel more, I resolved to set an alarm next time.

After a lot more uneventful wandering, I finally made it to the end of the tunnel. The sunlight was blinding, but at last I was out of the dark.

**Ah, a nice long chapter again. That last chapter was a more than a little short(not my best work), and I'll probably go back and edit it later. In other news, I'm glad to get back to business. I guess it's time to sign off now. Please review! Also remember to vote on my poll!**

**Pokelegend**


	9. Chapter 9: Cerulean City and the Bridge

**Hello once again, readers! 115 views this month! I love feedback, but I haven't been getting hardly any. But since some of the little feedback I did get informed me I screwed up this chapter(Thanks, Psychicshipping) so I fixed it up a bit. Anyway, since school just let back in and I'll be very busy, I will now start a reviews=chapters rule. So 2 reviews = new chapter. Also, to read this far, you must like my story at the very least, so please spread the word and maybe put a link to it from Facebook or another social networking site. One more thing, I made a few edits to Ch. 8. That said, here's Chapter 9:**

I emerged from Mount Moon into the sunlight, and breathed in the fresh mountain air. After feeling grateful to be out of the cave, I headed on down Route 4. I encountered a few trainers here and there, and trained my pokemon a bunch. Again, they performed exceptionally. There wasn't much to see on the way.

Finally I crested a hill and there it was, bathed in the afternoon light, Cerulean City. I checked my watch. 2:40. It didn't make any sense! I had entered the cave at 11:12 in the morning. I had been in there for way more than three or four hours! I thought back to the cave. That's right! I remembered falling asleep, but not when, exactly. I must have slept a long time in there.

I headed down the slope into the city and looked around. They had a mart, a pokecenter, and plenty of houses. A stream flowed over the foot of the mountain to the northwest, flowing from the northeast. Across the stream spanned a wide, gilded bridge. A whole bunch of trainers stood on it. Some were battling.

Spotting the Cerulean Gym, I made a beeline for it. What I saw inside surprised me.

My friend Ash was inside battling Misty. It was Butterfree vs. Staryu. Suddenly I realized why Misty was so familiar. She was Cerulean City Gym Leader! I had read about the family tradition there. I looked around, and sure enough, there were the sensational Sisters, watching the proceedings and looking bored.

I watched as butterfree tried paralysis and sleep, to no avail. Staryu eventually knocked Butterfree into the water, and Ash had to call it back to keep it from drowning. He then tried Pidgeotto, and Misty switched Staryu for its higher form, Starmie. Pidgeotto commenced whupping Starmie, and just as it finished, the wall blew open. Two figures and a Meowth entered through the hole.

"Sorry to _break_ in on you like this." said some chick in a white team rocket uniform with long maroon hair.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves!" announced the dude also in a white Rocket uniform, with goofy purple hair. Ash groaned. Misty held her head like she had a headache.

_"To protect the world from devastation"_

_"To unite all people within our nation"_

_"To denounce the evils of truth and love"_

_"To extend our reach to the stars above"_

_"Jesse!"_

_"James!"_

_"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"_

_"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"_

"Meowth, that's right!" The Meowth talked with a human voice. It freaked me out a little. None of my pokemon could talk! Ash groaned again. "These idiots have been stalking me since Viridian!"

"Is that your theme song? I like it." I said sarcastically.

"Really?" asked the one who was apparently James.

"No. It's just sad. Totally lame. And to be honest, FREAKING ANNOYING!"

The new arrivals looked almost as irritated as I was.

"The water pokemon have the advantage." said James, a little ruffled from my honesty. Sinister music began playing out of nowhere. I looked around for a source, but couldn't find one.

"But if we steal all the water-" started Jesse,

"The pokemon are ours for the taking!" finished James.

"And Meowth knows just how to do it." bragged the annoying talking cat.

They brought out a huge vacuum. I smiled. Team Rocket laughed evilly as the vacuum began sucking water, but suddenly it blew up, sending the would-be thieves through the roof. Shocker got an epic slow-motion walking scene out of emerging from his handiwork. I felt a surge of pride at the ease of foiling those idiots. I had secretly let him out as soon as the wall had opened.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they screamed as they disappeared into the clouds.

"Hey, I was gonna deal with them! Wait, when did you get here, anyway?" Ash asked me.

"I thought I would give you a break. You should act more quickly. I got here about twenty minutes ago."

"You missed the part when the police were investigating the stolen vacuum. They suspected us at first, but now we know Team Rocket did it." Said Misty.

"Wait, we didn't finish our match!" cried Ash, clearly distressed. Misty sent Staryu back out and Ash got Pidgeotto to beat it with only slightly less trepidation than with Starmie. Misty looked disappointed, but I was happy for Ash that he won his Cascade Badge. The match over, I started talking again.

"Did you hear the sinister music?"

"Yeah. I wonder where it came from." We looked around a bit but couldn't find a speaker. We eventually gave up.

"So you're the Gym Leader?" I asked Misty.

"Yep."

"I guess this means I challenge you. Bossplant, I choose you!" And with that, the battle started.

"Go, Staryu!"

"Bossplant, Suny Day!" The light filtering in through the holes in the wall and ceiling intensified. This would give me an advantage, because the sunlight would weaken water moves.

"Staryu, Water gun!" It hardly did anything. Bossplant grinned a Bulbasaur grin.

"Now use Solarbeam!" Kaboom! One-hit KO. Misty looked thunderstruck. She essentially was. I had a way of doing this to people.

"Alright, go Starmie!" she said, recovering.

"Bossplant, return." Bossplant refused to go in his ball and vine whipped Starmie.

"C'mon Bossplant! You don't have all the advantage here!" Unfortunately for Bossplant, Misty took the hint intended for him.

"Starmie, use Psychic Attack!" Bossplant glowed blue and flinched. He grimaced, resisting the mental attack with all of his willpower. His bulb flexed and bulged, indicating that his ability, Overgrow, had been activated. Then he opened his eyes and loosed a powerful Solarbeam that blasted Starmie so hard it skipped across the water. Starmie Rapid Spun in for more, but my tenacious little seed pokemon lashed it back with Vine Whip two or three times before releasing a mighty Solarbeam he had been cooking for three times as long as a regular one under increased sunlight.

The foe had been blown down into the pool, but the powerful, heated beam evaporated the water around its pointed body. After the attack ended, though, Starmie _still_ kept coming. It came back around for another Psychic, but got slammed down by yet _another_ Solarbeam. With Overgrow activated, and in the sunlight, Bossplant was unstoppable. But so was Starmie in a watery environment.

I waited until my Grass-type had hammered Starmie back into the pool again, and then retrieved him. He was getting worn out, so he didn't resist as much this time, and the switch completed. Starmie found itself faced with a pikachu.

"Shocker, use Thunder Wave!" Starmie was too tired to dodge, and was paralyzed. I had my electric rodent blast it with Thunderbolt before switching back to Bossplant. He finally managed to finish it off with his biggest, most powerful Solarbeam yet.

Misty accepted defeat and handed me my Cascade Badge. I put it in the case next to my hard-earned Boulder Badge. I had my first two badges now!

On my way out the door, I heard Ash saying it was the most epic battle he had ever seen. I smiled. There will be more epic battles ahead, Ash. Many more.

I headed for the golden bridge. The guy standing up front informed me it was the Nugget Bridge. Cross it, defeating all the trainers, and you get a gold nugget for your prize. I decided to accept.

The first guy on the bridge opened the battle with a Rattata that my Charmander beat easily. Next Ash fought a tricky Ekans that gave him a bit more trouble. I collected my prize and continued.

Next was a girl with two Nidoran, one male and one female. They made me think back to the Twins. Mimien dealt with them with almost casual ease due to type advantage.

Farther up the bridge was a guy with a nasty Mankey that surprised and nearly KO'd Shocker, paralyzing itself from Static ability. I withdrew Shocker in favor of Fencer, who valiantly resisted Mankey's blows to use Swords Dance and taking Mankey down with Aerial Ace.

Finally I beat a Team Rocket grunt towards the end of the bridge. His Ekans and Zubat were creamed by Hydro Gun. After running him off, I advanced to the end of the bridge.

"Alright! I'm at the end of the bridge! Where's my prize?" I asked the guy I found there.

"You have one more challenge to face." he said.

"You?"

"No, him." He pointed and who should materialize from the shadows but Gary Oak!

"Gary? What are you doing here?"

"I just took this test and aced it. And while I'm here, I'll just end your win streak. How about that?" He looked smug. "Go, Pidgeotto!" The largish fowl materialized. Looks like my friend Ash isn't the only one owning such a bird.

"Shocker, I choose you! Use Thunderbolt!"

"Pidgeotto, just dodge it and use Whirlwind." Shocker missed, and leapt out of the way just in time to avoid getting blown away.

"Change of tactics- try Agility, then Thunder Wave!" Shocker did as he was told, and Gary's bird ended up paralyzed. It attempted a Sand Attack, but Shocker easily ninja'd around it.

"Finish him!" Shocker blasted the bird with Thunderbolt. It went down. Next Gary used an Abra, but Shocker's new speed allowed him to strike first, beating the Psychic-type with one hit.

Out came a rattata, which was a lot tougher that its species warranted. Its Hyper Fang hurt Shocker pretty badly and I switched him for Fencer. Fencer knocked Rattata away during Swords Dance, and then smashed it unconscious with his stick.

"Squirtle, your turn! Teach this guy a lesson!" Gary said as he sent out his starter.

"Fencer, use Aerial Ace!" I called.

"Squirtle, Water Gun!" The jet of water that blew from Squirtle's mouth connected with Fencer as he lanced through the air with blinding speed. Fencer fell to Squirtle's feet, somehow one-hit KO'd. It was my turn to be shocked. Gary laughed and laughed, settling on being smug some more.

"Squirtle never forgot how you beat him last time. He trained hard to get revenge!" Gary gloated.

"Fine. Go Mimien!" I knew Shocker wasn't in good enough condition for type advantage, and I wanted to suprise my opponent. "Mimien, use Confusion!"

The attack landed beautifully, confusing the water turtle. Mimien used Barrier to try to avoid a Water Gun, but Squirtle managed to aim true and blast through the psychic wall. Mimien was brought down. Gary grinned. his eyes glittered.

I decided to use my secret weapon. "Go, Bossplant!"

"Hmm. I thought you picked a Charmander." Gary thought out loud. He had counted on his Squirtle, and didn't think I would have any option but use Ash.

"Let's just say you don't know everything, Gary. Bossplant, use Sunny Day!"

Bossplant would have been KO'd by Squirtle's Water Gun if he had been slower. The attack's power was lowered by the sunlight, just enough for Bossplant to survive. Overgrow was triggered again. My Bulbasaur knocked Squirlte over with Vine Whip and held him there while he charged up a tremendous amount of solar energy in his bulb. Just when it looked like he was about to burst, he withdrew his vines and Squirtle stood back up. Squirtle fired a Water Gun that was instantly evaporated by the crushing Solarbeam. Everything ceased to exsist for a moment as the world turned white. When vision returned, Squirtle lay defeated on his back, and Bossplant passed out, exhausted.

"It's a tie!" Gary declared, trying to uphold his image.

"Nope." I sent out Ash. "Pay up."

I collected my prizes and checked my surroundings for the first time as Gary sulked away, still trying to act cool. I was at the edge of the woods around the mountain range Mount Moon was on. A small yellow pokemon materialized in front of me suddenly. An Abra.

_Was it coming to see what the commotion was about?_ As if reading my thoughts, it nodded. Then again, it probably _did_ read my thoughts. I suddenly remembered Reyley. He wanted an Abra. _Maybe this one will go with him._ Abra nodded again. It startled me, and I realized it had read my thoughts again. _But Reyley's house is back before Viridian Forest! It's a long way away!_ Abra nodded, then slowly but deliberately put its fist into its other hand. "Oh, I have to battle you first. Okay." Abra nodded.

The battle was brief. I sent out Hydro Gun, and his Bubblebeam paralyzed the small psychic pokemon before it inflicted a lot of damage with Zen Headbutt. Don't ask me how or why it knew that. It shouldn't have learned it in the wild! There was more to this Abra than met the eye.

The Abra was satisfied, and let me catch it after that. After I hurried back to the PC in the Pokemon Center and retrieved it, it took my hand. Suddenly we were back in front of Reyley's place. I went up to the door and knocked. After a few moments I knocked again. An uncomfortable silence pervaded the air. Just then I heard whistling, and saw the man himself exiting Viridian Forest, my trusty Twins in tow. After a brief enthusiastic greeting, I sent out Mimien to see Reyley again and greeted my Twins. They were pretty excited, too. Abra went to Reyley and happily rubbed up to his leg. Apparently, all Abra wanted was a good trainer.

"Well, I got you an Abra. Can I have the Twins back now?"

"Sure, sure." I retrieved the Twins to their pokeballs. They energized and disappeared.

"Whoops. Full team... " I realized. I turned to Abra. "Can you teleport me back to were I found you?" Abra nodded. He came up to me, and as our hands locked we found ourselves at the end of the Nugget Bridge again. Abra tipped his head and disappeared. Teleportation, I decided. That's what was going on.

I had heard about the guy who had invented the Pokemon Storage System on the PC. He was just East of here. I decided to head for his place.

**That was a nice, looooooong chapter. I had a lot of material I wanted to put in it. Due to some feedback (thank you) I have decided to edit it. I just want to point out again real quick that this is mostly based on the games, so charicters will be out of character a lot. Now remember, if you want next chapter anytime soon, just do a quick review. Two reviews from different people, next chapter. Only **_**you,**_** reader, can get me to write next chapter. **_**You**_** only have to do a quick review. Doesn't even have to be any more than four or five words, but a nice, long review would be good, too. I want feedback, people! One more thing, Team Rocket (Jesse, James, Meowth) are not worthy opponents for Joseph.**

**That's all for now,**

**Pokelegend**


	10. Chapter 10: Challenges and Overcomings

**Before you go all, "HA! He got soft!" on me, I want to say I made an executive decision. If two or three weeks go by and still no 2 reviews, I'll just write a new chapter. Honestly, if you just reviewed, you and Psychicshipping could fill up the review quota. Anyhow, my story just isn't long enough for that rule. I'll just sort of use salutary neglect from now on. I've yapped too much. Here's chapter 10:**

On my way to the PC guy's house, I was contemplating physics. What comes up, must come down, right? Then what about Team Rocket? They yelled, "Team Rocket is blasting off again!" meaning they've done it before. They fly miles into the sky! How do they survive their falls?!

The answer to my quandary was abruptly given as I was abruptly smashed to the ground. I saw red, then white, and vision returned. I was in a lot of pain, and I felt three bodies on top of me. They scrambled off, and as I was getting up, the idiotic threesome began their theme song.

_"To protect the worl-"_

"Stop! Stop!" I yelled, cutting them off and covering my ears. They tried to continue, but I wouldn't let them. It was too late in the day for major annoyances.

"I don't want to hear your stupid theme song!" They finally shut up. I started walking away. Over my shoulder, I heard Jesse say, "Well, at least we didn't have to ad-lib an evil plot."

"Yeah, that would be embarrassing," put in the talking Meowth. It was obvious they were awkward enough in this situation as they were.

"You guys need to quit landing on people!" I called over my shoulder as I passed out of their line of sight.

There was a short stretch of woods that I went though quickly, getting myself ambushed by a bug catcher that I beat easily. Bug catchers tend to have the same kinds of pokemon, and this guy was no exception.

At the end of the woods, I came to the foot of a hill that was crested by a house. I sprinted to close the rest of the distance and knocked on the door. No one answered.

"Hello? Anybody home?" I called. "Come in," called a muffled voice. Inside was a cluttered computer laboratory, with an overlording big machine in the back. It appeared to have two chambers connected by a flexible tube. I looked around, but didn't see anybody around. "Hello?" I called again.

I went around a desk and saw a little Clefairy huddled on the floor.

"Oh, hey little guy, what are you doing in here, so far away from Mount Moon?" I coaxed.

"I'm not a Clefairy, I'm Bill!" It said loud and clear. I leaped back. I'd had my fill of talking pokemon earlier today, and this was totally overboard.

"Bill?" I ventured.

"Yeah, Bill. The guy who invented and perfected the Pokemon storage system. I was conducting an experiment and accidentally turned myself into a pokemon. I can't work the machine anymore with my new puny height, so could you please help me get back to normal?" It was a lot to take in. Still, it explains why he was talking.

"Okay...?"

"Good! Now can you open that door? Thanks." He climbed inside the big machine through the portal I had just assisted him with on the first chamber. With a muffled voice similar to what he sounded like through the front door, he gave me the operating instructions. I followed them closely, and when I was done, the thing whirred to life, flashing strange lights and making weird noises. After a few seconds, a lump appeared in the base of the tube, traveled to the other chamber, and disappeared. I waited about another minute, and the door opened and Bill stepped out, fully clothed and human again.

"Thanks so much! Anything I can help you with?"

"Not really. I just wanted to meet you." He frowned. "Well, I should probably give you something useful for your help. Here, have a ticket to the luxury cruise S.S. Anne. As a token of my gratitude." He held it out to me, and I accepted it.

The rest of my stay was small talk. He told me about a fatal system error in the Pokedex that they will be fixing in the Pokemon Center tomorrow. He didn't have the gear on hand to fix it right there, but it was coming in the mail and he'd have it soon.

After I was done at Bill's, I headed back to Cerulean to find a place to crash, as it was around 10:30 when I arrived. I rented a hotel room again, and forgot to sent out my pokemon to enjoy the place.

The following morning, I slept in a bit, then rushed to the Pokemon Center after waking up. There was a small crowd inside, but the equipment necessary for bug fixes wasn't there yet. The crowd continued to grow, fueled by wayward people informed of the situation and people from other towns. Ash showed up, as did Misty. To my surprise, so did Pewter City Gym Leader Brock, who explained he was traveling with Ash and now Flint is looking after the gym.

I sent out my pokemon to take a break while I waited. Ash got to enjoy a berry as he and the rest of my starters sat around me. Mimien took to entertaining everyone, causing other trainers to send out their pokemon. Fencer preened himself and inspected his stick, then went down for a nap. Shocker didn't look so good. He looked slightly green, his cheeks fizzled with weak electricity, and he had a defeated look in his eyes.

I was concerned for my Pikachu and took him to the counter to see Nurse Joy. She gasped slightly at the sight of him and rushed up to inspect him. "What's wrong?" I asked, alarmed.

"Your Pikachu has come down with a harmful Pokerus. It looks bad."

"A Pokerus?!" I had read about those. "Pokerus are supposed to be helpful!"

"Most are. But this particular strain can permanently put a Pokemon out of commission if it gets too far. Have you battled any wild pokemon that behaved strangely recently?" She rolled him over and took his temperature. Then a Chansey wheeled in a stretcher and carted Shocker to the back.

"No..." I racked my brain. Then I remembered a particular encounter in Mount Moon. "Wait, actually I have! There were a bunch of wild Zubat that bit me and Shocker. They must have had it!"

"They bit you too? You should be okay because the virus targets pokemon, but we'll need a blood sample to test for just in case." I went to the back and did my best not to cringe when they used the needle. I patted Shocker's head afterwards.

"It'll be okay, boy. I'll have a bottle of ketchup for you soon." I turned to the nurse. "Can I take him with me on my journey still?"

Nurse Joy shook her head. "I'm sorry, but the virus has advanced too far. He'll have to stay here till he recovers."

"What?! But I need him! The poor guy needs to come with me!"

"Look, what he needs is extensive care. When he's healthy again, we'll inform you when we put him in the PC system so you can retrieve him. Okay?"

I sighed. "All right." I said goodbye to my poor sick pokemon, then returned to the rest of my team in the main lobby.

One restless trainer came up to me and challenged me to a battle. We took it outside. Fencer got KO'd against his Growlithe, and Hydro Gun pulled through with the battle. It was right about then that the equipment came. Nurse Joy had everybody line up alphabetically, and it wound like an Ekans all the way around the lobby and out the door. We basically had a small army of trainers, much to the chagrin of the lone Team Rocket grunt that tried to steal our pokemon. All of my pokemon helped beat him up except Fencer, who was looking discouraged.

Luckily for me, I was about five trainers back in line due to my fortunate last name. Updating the pokedex took about 25 minutes, though, and I was stuck there nearly two hours. I felt a bit sorry for my friend Ash. His last name was a "K," so he was set back about 50 or 60 trainers back.

While I waited in line, I had a conversation with Fencer, strained because I can't speak Farfetch'd-ese, in which he managed to express he was having to much trouble in battle and wanted a break. I wanted to keep him with me, but he was too disheartened. In the end, I had him sent to Prof. Oak to stay for a while. I felt bad to have to do so because he really wasn't a bad fighter and I enjoyed having him around. I realized I had two slots left open in my team, and filled them with the Twins. They were delighted to come with me on my journey again.

After my pokedex was finally fixed up, I went to the Mart and stocked up on supplies before leaving Cerulean. I then began on Route 9, also connected to the Mount Moon Mountain range. I fought a lot of trainers along the way, using many of my healing supplies.

Eventually, I came to what looked like a fortress. A big guy with a southern accent was training his pokemon out front. A big sign with changeable numbers read, '47 wins, 0 losses.' I observed the '0' wasn't changeable. The guy noticed me and came over with a Sandshrew in tow.

"Hey there trainer, name's AJ. How about a friendly battle? My Sandshrew here against your whole team!"

"Okay, if you don't mind changing the zero on your sign."

He laughed. "I like your sense of humor. Sandshrew, get battle ready!" He pulled out a bullwhip and cracked it in the air. Sandshrew curled into a ball, rolled around to the front of his trainer, and then popped back out to a standing position.

Water is strong against ground, so I sent out Hydro Gun. "Hydro gun, use Hydro Pump!" I called. Hydro gun did as he was told, but Sandshrew just seemed to shake off the water, unharmed. AJ grinned.

"Sandshrew, use Rollout!" AJ cracked his whip above his pokemon's head, and it sprang into action. It leaped forward, rolled back into a sphere, and pounded the ground, rolling like a wheel set free. Hydro Gun fired off another Hydro Pump to no avail. Sandshrew coursed through the pressurized stream, barely slowing at all. My Squirtle used Withdraw at the last second, retreating back into his shell a moment before impact. He got knocked away and flew like a football.

"Hydro Gun, use Rapid Spin!" My battered water turtle used his flying motion to change course as Sandshrew rounded for a new, more powerful attack. They careened into each other and smashed apart. Hydro Gun popped out of his shell and hit the dirt face first, now unconscious. I was shocked. I returned him to his ball, and Sandshrew, unruffled, rolled back in front of AJ, and stood cooly.

"Okaaaay... Uh, Bossplant, I choose you!" I said unsteadily. Sandshrew appeared not to have taken any damage from my Squirtle's supereffective attacks. It was a force to be reckoned with.

"Bossplant, use Sunny Day." Bossplant complied, and the sun brightened. The seed pokemon began gathering energy.

"Sandshrew, use Sand Attack!" called AJ, snapping his whip once again. His small pokemon swiped some dirt up and chucked it at Bossplant. It got in his eyes, nearly blinding him. He tried to rub his eyes with his Vine Whip, but it didn't help.

"Rollout, Sandshrew!" _crack!_ Sandshrew rolled again. It was really looking bad for me now.

"Bossplant, use Solarbeam!" I called. The normally true beam missed its mark, and Sanshrew barreled on, crashing into Bossplant and bouncing back, gathering more speed and force. My Bulbasaur got back to his feet, squinting at his opponent angrily. He took careful aim and attempted to nail Sandshrew with another beam of Grass-type energy. Sandshrew flew foreward with tremendous force.

"Dig! Now!" cried AJ, making yet another loud noise with his whip. Sandshrew terminated his Rollout and dove underground, avioding a certain KO by inches. A molehill arose, barreling straight for my pokemon.

"Bossplant, do a Vine Whip jump on my signal- _Now!_" The molehill cracked open, and Sandshrew erupted out of it like yellow lava. Bossplant, however, snapped his Vine Whip against the ground and used the force to leap high in the air. He and his adversary rose at the same rate, Sandshrew striking and Bossplant avoiding.

Bossplant's trailing vines lashed Sandshrew and wrapped him up. Bossplant pulled the small foe out from under himself and slammed him down into the ground as he landed. Sandshrew, stunned and dizzy, flopped out of the green coils, and tried to catch his breath. In close quarters, the landing of the coming Solarbeam was imminent. The blast of energy smashed into the small pokemon, leaving him a little blackened. Amazingly, he stood back up and dusted himself off, looking wearily to his trainer for a command.

Bossplant acted first, though, tripping him back to the ground with another round of whipping and Solarbeaming it repeatedly. Sandshrew just kept getting up. After about the fifth time, Bossplant stopped. He and Sandshrew just stared at each other. I could see AJ about to give a command, but then he stopped, confused.

Sandshrew stumbled forward and leaned on my Bulbasaur. Bossplant steadied him and sat him down, reaching out with his Vine Whip and snatching an Oran berry from a nearby bush. He handed it to Sandshrew. They started talking as Sandshrew ate the peace offering.

"What about the battle...?" I ventured. Bossplant turned to me and shook his head.

"Bulba."

"So you won't fight him anymore?" He nodded. I sighed. "I guess then it's a draw. Our pokemon don't want to fight each other." AJ nodded. "Yeah, I guess this is a kinda sacred moment. It's a draw." We shook hands.

"Oh well. I guess you don't have to change the sign now."

"Yeah." We watched the two new unlikely friends for a moment. A thought occurred to me.

"Hey, AJ, how come Sandshrew acted like Hydro Pump was nothing? It should be super effective."

"Ah, my little secret. Here, watch this: Sandshrew! How about we show your new bud how you train?" Sandshrew nodded and and got up, strength returning from the nurishment of the berry. He beckoned to Bossplant, who followed him to a pool crawling with AJ's other pokemon. Bossplant helped him in when he struggled a bit.

"You make your Sandshrew _swim?!_" I asked, shocked.

"Well, yeah, I normally use my whip to speed things up, but the poor guy is recovering."

"You _whip_ them?" I was considering turning this guy over to the Kanto Police for pokemon abuse.

"Oh, no! I just use it to spur them on with the noise! You saw how I used it during the battle. Never touched the little guy!"

"Oh. Normally Sanshrew hate water. Why is yours swimming?" I said, changing the subject.

"Builds up immunity. If you expose your pokemon to an element they're weak to in small doses, they can resist it much better."

"But he doesn't have Grass immunity."

"No, immunity like you saw back there takes a long time to build up. If you try too many things at a time, it doesn't work as well."

Bossplant saw Sandshrew get tired and start to drown and pulled him out of the pool. Sandshrew gave him a hug.

"I think that's enough training for now, Sandshrew. Get some rest." AJ told his pokemon.

I let Bossplant walk with me out of his ball as I left AJ's place. I turned and waved one last time to our new friends. Bossplant waved too, and got a strange look in his eyes. He began to glow white, and his form began to shift and grow. I watched, awestruck. The white glow faded, and my former Bulbasaur now looked very different. His scaly skin was now more bluish, and his cute face now looked a bit more rough. The bulb on his back had opened into leaves, topped with a pink pod.

"Ivysaur!" he declared.

"Bossplant, you've evolved!" I said, elated. I gave him a little hug. Normally Ivysaur look meanish, but his much less cute face still had a kind but more competitive look to it. "Ivy."

"You realize there's no turning back, right? You'll never be a Bulbasaur again." He nodded gravely, then smiled, telling me everything. He was ready for his next stage in life. He was now better equipped for the battles to come.

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me, I need to heal Hydro Gun," I remembered. I revived him, and he was amazed to see Bossplant's new form. I sent out the rest of my team to see the change that had taken place. My Charmander cheered and patted him on the back. The Twins took a moment to realize exactly who they were looking at, then cheered him on, too. Mimien clapped, excited.

"You know," I said, "I'd like all of you to evolve." They got quiet and looked at one another. The Twins looked a bit scared.

"Well, Mimien, you're okay, you can't evolve. I'll wait for the rest of you to get ready."

The rest of them looked relieved. I hoped they had it in them to evolve later.

There were another few trainers I beat along the road, followed by another short stretch of woods. I came to a clearing inside and stopped. There was a trainer standing there with a strange smirk on his face.

"Hello, there, Name's Travis. How about a little high-stakes battle? If I win, you hand over your trainer's license and other trainer stuff instead of money. You name your conditions."

"Alright, triple prize money and umm... any rare items in your pack."

His smirk widened, and he pulled out a small table with retractable legs from his pack and set it up with a flourish.

"Before we have our little fight, I would like to give you a little something to consider," he said, bringing out a huge card binder from his overstuffed backpack. It was labeled, 'Trainers I Have Trashed, a collection by Travis the Trainer Trasher.'

Making sure I read the title, he set the large volume down on the table and opened it up. There, inside, were the Trainer Cards bearing the names and pictures of nearly 100 people, page after page of rows and rows of young trainers. I noticed none of them were any more than a year older than me. The last four pages were nearly free of cards, and there was a single space still open on the page before.

"If I win, which I'm confident I will, your Trainer's License will go right there," he said, pointing to the empty space.

"I'm confident you won't," I said boldly, "Let's _fight_ already." I wanted to avenge all of the other beginning trainers he had ruined, and his smugness was making me mad.

"Muk, lead me to victory!" he trumpeted, releasing a huge slimy beast from the pokeball in his hand.

I decided to go with type advantage to begin with. "Mimien! I choose you!"

"Muk, use Sludge Bomb!" he ordered.

"Mimien, block it with a barrier and follow it up with a Confusion!"

Muk hurled a slimy projectile at Mimien, smashing through the quickly put-up Barrier, but falling short as a result. Muk suddenly held his gooey head, eyes wheeling in circles. He swiped with a sludgy arm at Mimien but missed, coming back around and wetly smacking himself in the face, hurling gobs of nastiness in the process.

"Just do the Death Hug!" yelled Travis. This isn't an official League move, but it's still allowed to be used. People call it whatever they want.

"Mimien! Use Psychic!" I called, as the gooey mass closed in. My Mr. Mime had learned this move recently, but if his concentration broke, he was a goner.

Mimien was smothered in Muk's nasty body for a long moment. I held my breath. If something didn't happen soon, I would most likely lose this match, and obtaining a new Trainer's Licence is next to impossible if someone won it off you, so my journey would come to an abrupt end. I'd have to release my pokemon, and Oak probably wouldn't give me a new starter.

Muk began to glow blue, and shapes appeared through the sludge making up his body. Mimien fought his way out of the gunk, continuing to nail Muk with Psychic till he was KO'd. Mimien shook himself off, coughing and choking for breath.

"Dang it! Alright, Muk, return. Go, Graveler!" shouted Travis, sucking his slimy pokemon back into its storage capsule. Out came the tough, four-armed rocky evolution of Geodude. "Rock Blast, Graveler!"

The physical attack completely blew my weakened Mr. Mime away, crashing through his hastily thrown up Barriers with impunity. I returned my fallen pokemon to his ball.

"Thing 1 and Thing 2, show me what you got!" I cried, sending them out.

"Hey, this is a single battle. Only one at a time!" said Travis.

"Fine. Thing 2, stand back." The Male Twin reluctantly went around behind me, and watched his sister get creamed. Graveler had type advantage and much higher power, so there was no contest.

Thing 2 got angry, and flew forward into battle position. The poor little guy took a Rock Blast but landed a tackle with violent determination. It didn't seem to do anything, and a Magnitude ensured Thing 2 wouldn't be able to avenge his sister.

I knew the Twins couldn't handle Graveler from the start, but I was trying to make Travis underestimate me and get sloppy. I hoped the Twins would forgive me later.

"Hydro Gun, your turn!" Now I went for type advantage. My Squirtle exchanged a Hydro Pump for a Rock Blast, but both attacks missed. I had Hydro Gun use Rapid Spin to get closer to his foe and then Hydro Pump again. The maneuver worked, but the dripping foe didn't appear to be weakened too much. Graveler used Strength, slugging my little turtle with huge force. He fell, unconscious, to my feet.

This battle was still not looking up for me. I only had two Pokemon left, and he could have at least four more after this one. Still, I had one big advantage against this particular foe.

"Bossplant, pull through, I believe in you!" I said, as Bossplant engaged his foe. I had him use Sunny Day and dodge a Strength, and then surprised the rocky adversary with a Solarbeam. Graveler didn't know what hit him. Travis grumpily returned his boulder pokemon and sent out an Electabuzz.

"Electabuzz, use Psychic!"

"Bossplant, use Sleep Powder!" Bossplant resisted the Psychic and put his foe to sleep. Then he wailed on him with Solarbeams and Vine Whips untill it was clear that Electabuzz wasn't gonna finish this battle. It helped that Psychic activated Overgrow.

Travis smirked. "Magmar, finish him." The fiery pokemon popped out of its ball into battle. The sunlight, Bossplant's weakening from Psychic, and type advantage all fed into a KO on my Ivysaur by a Flamethrower. If it looked bad before, it was nothing compared to now. I had one left, and he could potentially have two backing Magmar.

"Ash, give it all you've got!" My Charmander looked up at the taller foe, and shank in fear for a moment. Then, gathering his courage, he looked up at me, then gave Magmar a challenging look. Magmar grinned cruelly, then delivered a Thunderpunch and a Mach Punch that left Ash seeing stars. Ash recovered, then leaped up and Scratched Magmar's face with determination.

Magmar didn't like that, so he Focus Blasted Ash to the ground. Ash looked hurt, and looked up at me with a pitiful look.

"Come on, Ash, you can do it! Pick yourself up and fight! If you give up, youll never recover. Fight harder, and you keep your dignity!"

Travis smirked cruelly, looking a lot like his Magmar had. "Touching. Magmar, finish him." Magmar raised his fist. Ash looked up, a new competitive fire brimming in his eyes. He pulled himself out of the dirt, facing his foe once more. Magmar smashed his fist down in a mighty Thunderpunch. Ash flipped over his arm, and Magmar's punch connected with the ground, cracking his knuckles violently and losing all the electric energy to the unyielding earth. He held up his injured hand to inspect it, looking a lot less smug.

Ash's competitive fire burned brighter in his eyes, and the look on his face grew very uncharacteristic. Magmar swiped at him with his good hand, but Ash grabbed it and yanked on it with unwarranted strength, throwing Magmar off balance. He fell on his hurt claws, wincing.

Ash, though beat up, looked healthier than I had ever seen him. His tail flame, which had been burning low, grew bigger than I had ever seen. We all stopped and watched in amazement as he began to glow white. His form got bigger, and his little arms lengthened. The glow faded, and there stood a red Charmeleon, with large claws and a prong coming off the back of his head. The flame in his eyes grew ever brighter, and his face contorted as he used Rage. He traded five or six blows with Magmar, attacking with mighty Slashes and punches. Magmar was constantly getting weaker, and finally collapsed.

Ash, beaten up and bruised, stood panting over his fallen foe, and his Rage slowly subsided. He tottered, then curled up for a nap, all of his energy spent.

"Do you have any more pokemon?" I asked, distressed. If he had so much as one more, even a Magikarp, I would lose everything.

Travis said a word unfit for print and said Magmar was his last. I couldn't believe my luck.

"I won. Give me my prizes."

"No, we tied. You just get out of here."

"My Charmeleon beat your Magmar. I won. Give me my stuff or I'll revive my pokemon and whup you again." Travis shook his head. "Fine."

I took out a Super Potion and sprayed Ash with it. He woke up from his nap, blinked, and got to his feet.

"Ash, this guy won't give you what you earned. Are you gonna let that victory go to waste?" Ash looked angry.

"Char!" he demanded, baring his teeth and raising his claws.

"Okay, fine! This is just extortion now!" cried Travis, throwing his pack to my feet.

"Call it what you like, but I won," I mumbled as I went through his backpack. It truly wasn't extortion. It was a fair win and he could have recovered it if he had carried more pokemon.

I found some good stuff in there. There was a ticket to Faraway Island, an Experience Share(Good for even training), and a funny looking blue-green stone with rough rock around it. I pulled out my Pokedex and identified it. It said it was the Enigma Stone, an object with some legendary connection deeply rooted in the Hoenn region. I also took my triple prize money.

"I'll be back," promised the Trasher as I left, Ash walking with me.

"I'll be waiting," I called back.

**Well, did you like those battles and the twist in the one against AJ? I sure hope you did. Sorry if you didn't like Ch. 9, but some things can't be helped. Also: if you don't know what was with the Zubat incident in Mt. Moon, refer back to Ch. 8, because I added that part. I have also decided to grow my story apart from the anime more so I don't make more OOC mistakes. Hope this chapter makes up for it. Also, please review! And thanks for taking time to read the notes- they're important. One more thing, thank all you fans for following this story so far! I plan to get the next chapter up next week if I can because I got a review from somebody besides Psychicshipping. Also: forgot to mention this earlier, but the Trainer Trasher idea came from Psychicshpping. Thanks again, reviewers!**

**Thanks again for reading and your support,**

**Pokelegend**


	11. Chapter 11: Troubles Old and New

**Welcome back, readers! I got some positive feedback, so I must be doing **_**something**_** right. Thanks for 170 views this month! Not much else to say except you wanted Ch. 11, so you got it!**

I walked a little ways with my freshly evolved Charmeleon, then let out my pokemon and healed them. It was a good thing I stocked up a lot in the Mart at Cerulean, because I was using more recently. I revived my Squirtle last.

As soon as Hydro Gun was healthy, he looked up to see Ash and jumped back, shaking his head to clear it. Ash sneered.

"Squirtle?! Squirt Squirt?" he asked. Ash nodded and sneered some more. Hydro Gun backed up some more.

"Squirt?" he asked, as if to say, "Truce?" Ash shook his head.

"Char." he replied, apparently saying, "Nope." He turned around and started mauling a bush. He sure wasn't acting at all like he used to. He used to be careful and loving, and never held a grudge. Now he was using his new size and looks to intimidate Hydro Gun!

Hydro Gun made a face at his back, then sprayed him right in the back of the head. He whipped around, sending water droplets everywhere, and marched back up to Hydro Gun, who was doing a poor job of feigning innocence.

"Char!" he demanded.

"Squirt?" came the reply, sounding like, "Who, me?"

Ash glowered, then raised a claw. It was right about then when Bossplant got involved.

"IVYSAUR!" he yelled, separating the two with his vine whip.

"Saur Saur Ivy, Ivysaur!" he said, glaring at them. Ash belligerently shoved Bossplant's vine away from him, then spat an Ember at Hydro Gun.

Quick as a Snorlax when it hears the jingling bells of an ice cream truck, Bossplant popped open his pink bulb and released a Stun Spore that caught Ash by surprise. Having no time to burn the spores away, he began twitching and fell on his side, rigid as a board.

Hydro Gun doused the Ember at his feet and stuck out his tongue at Ash. Ash, in his paralyzed state, could only watch in anger. Bossplant Vine Whipped him on the forehead for it, knocking him on his rear. Then he used Aromatherapy to relieve Ash of his Paralysis and called for them to shake hands and forget about it.

Ash folded his arms and shook his head. When he was a Charmander, he was the first to offer his hand. Now he was stubbornly refusing. It was like he never was a nice, caring Charmander!

With a little prodding, Hydro Gun stuck out his hand. Ash eyed it and shook his head. Bossplant made a show of readying his pod, and Ash decided to just shake on it. He used what Mom would call the "Gorilla Handshake" and Hydro Gun came out of it wincing in pain. It was settled for now, but my Squirtle was obviously jealous of Ash again. I pulled him aside to talk.

"Hydro Gun, what's wrong? Are you jealous of Ash again?" He sheepishly nodded.

"Is it because he evolved?" Another nod.

"Squirt," Hydro Gun replied.

"You're probably annoyed because he can bully you now, aren't you? It's okay, don't feel bad. All of us face challenges, and this is one of yours. Just don't be a jerk to Ash, and eventually he'll be nice to you back. You'll see. He can't be mean forever if you try to get along with him."

My Squirtle thought a second and brightened a bit. "Squirtle!" he said, and went over to where Ash and Bossplant were playing Tic Tac Toe in the dirt and spectated.

I went to see what the Twins and Mimien were doing. Mimien had been entertaining them the whole time, and they looked like they were having fun.

"Hey Mimien! What's up?" He shrugged. I looked down at the Twins.

"How about you two?" They turned and glared.

"What?" I asked. They turned back to my Mr. Mime and talked for a second. He acted out the battle, and the Twins made upset chirps when he showed the part when they had their butts whupped by Graveler.

"I'm sorry guys! You two helped me win an important battle. I needed you to get him all cocky. I probably wouldn't win without your help! Will you forgive me?" I held my hands out, palms up.

The Twins thought between themselves, then suddenly jumped forward and chomped down on my fingertips on both hands with their sharp little rodent teeth.

I pulled back in pain. "OW! What wa- ...oh." They were nodding.

"Apology accepted?" I asked, wringing my hands. They nodded again, both wearing looks that said, "Yeah, it's cool." Apparently, forgiveness was conditional.

I went a little ways with everybody walking with me out of their pokeballs, and decided to call up a round of training. I had Ash working to build up resistance to water while Mimien helped Bossplant and the Twins with withstanding Psychic attacks. Then I changed it up a bit, and had my Starters train against the Tins as Mimien worked on Barriers alone. After I decided it was enough training for now, I had a quick snack with them and returned them to my belt.

I saw a storm cloud gather farther down the path. It was a perfectly clear day, so I knew it had to be the influence of a pokemon and ran to investigate. The dark clouds parted as I drew near, and I stood there awestruck when I saw that they contained a bird of legend, Zapdos. I had read about it, but never in my life hoped to see one in real life. I wondered if I was dreaming.

Zapdos eyed me suspiciously, sizing me up. It turned to leave, and I sprung into action, hurling a pokeball at it. I was lucky enough to catch a wild Farfetch'd, so there was reason to believe I could get Zapdos, too. I knew not to try to weaken it because it would just overpower all of my pokemon anyway, so I was trying my luck.

The capsule sucked up the legendary pokemon from behind, but before gravity could move the ball toward the ground, it split apart, sending red, white and black shards everywhere and letting the thunderbird loose again. Zapdos whirled on me, now ticked off that I would have the gall to try that. I tossed another ball, but the target just fried it with a Thunderbolt. A third ball was already in my hand when Zapdos shocked the wits out of me with a follow-up attack.

Satisfied that I was fried to a crisp, it turned again and flew away.

As I sat down and brushed myself off, I thought some more about what just took place. It all happened too fast for me to really think about it, leading me to question whether it happened at all. But there was the burnt smell, the frizziness of my raised hair, and the metallic taste in my mouth, so there was no way it _didn't_ happen. I could think of no other possible explanation.

Another thought occurred to me. Legendary pokemon are almost never seen, otherwise they wouldn't be the stuff of legend. So why did I just see a Zapdos? Something didn't add up here.

After recovering a bit more, I set off down the road again. I regretted not getting a water canteen. I was getting pretty thirsty. I started looking for streams and finally found one. I followed it upstream a looooong way untill I found the natural spring source. First I rinsed off my head to clear it, making my hair return to normal in the process. Normally I don't care about my hair, but I didn't like the crinkly feeling.

After a long drink, I headed back down the path and continued past where I had my legendary encounter. After I got tired, I sat down and decided to let my pokemon out. The Twins trained rigorously with Mimien and my Starters, rotating around so the other three could rest. After a while, Thing 1 and Thing 2 decided they needed a break, and since it was around noon and they had all worked up an appetite, I broke out Lunch. Instead of coming and sitting next to me like he used to, my Charmeleon plunked down right were he was and ate his pokemon food stoically. The Twins, Mimien and Hydro Gun huddled loosely around me, and Bossplant sat a little farther out. As the pokemon talked among themselves and I finished my food, I started feeling sleepy and went down for a nap.

I woke up about 20 minutes later, and found my team staring at me, looking like someone just told a Snorlax fat joke. Seeing I had woken up, they all quickly made themselves look way suspicious by trying not to look suspicious.

"Wha-" I said, rubbing my eyes.

"Squirt," said Hydro Gun, looking like he just farted and was trying not to laugh.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, noticing the black smears on my hands were they touched my face. Mimien used Reflect and I saw my face like in a mirror. Sure enough, there were smeared superimposed bifocals, a mustache, and a goatee. Mimien grinned and pantomimed drawing the glasses with a marker pilfered from my bag, then pointed at the Twins, who grinned evilly. Still pointinig at the Nidoran, he touched his forehead.

"you're the artist, but it was their idea, huh?" I asked, realizing what he meant. All three of them nodded. I looked around for something to wash off my face.

"Hey, Hydro Gun, can you wash me off please?"

"Squirtle Squirt!" he said, a menacing grin spreading across his features, the tone of his voice ominously, cheerfully agreeing. I realized what it meant too late. He let a mighty Hydro Pump go right into my face. I held up my hands defensively to block the blow, and the huge force and pressure bowled me over. When I got up, there was no sign of the black markings. My hands were clean, too, thanks to my reflexive hand-raising.

"Thanks," I said, dripping, "That was so _refreshing_. Now it's gonna soak into my underpants and chafe for hours."

Everyone laughed, except for me. "Alright, out time's over. Everyone back to their pokeballs." I returned all of them but the Twins.

"I thought we were square!" They shrugged. I sighed, then returned them to their containment devices.

After about an hour more walking, I came on a pokemon center next to a big cave with a sign out front marked, "Rock Tunnel." I went into the center first for a pit stop and marched on up to the cave.

After pausing for a moment, I went in. I was a little sick of mountain caves ever since Mount Moon, and I wasn't eager to do it again. But, I needed to go this way or hike around, which could potentially take a whole lot longer, and I needed to find supplies. Plus, there are trainers in there and many more training opportunities.

As I was about 600 yards in, I began to hear a loud rumbling noise. At first I was pretty freaked out that it might be an earthquake and the cave would collapse, but it seemed to be steady and drawn out. As time wore on, I felt less scared by it.

If I thought Mount Moon had a lot of twists and turns, this place was a nightmare. I had to double back many times and select different corridors branching off. There were plenty of wild pokemon that I trained on, but I didn't care to catch any yet.

The farther in I went, the louder the rumbling got until I rounded a corner and abruptly found the source. A whole bunch of people in black uniforms with red R's on them were operating a big drill, and they were tunneling through the caves.

Team Rocket. Why would they appear here of all places? This quandary was also answered as they spotted me and started yelling stuff, and soon I was surrounded.

"Ha! He's fallen right into our trap." one of the apparently higher ranking Team Rocket punks said. "You know what to do."

"Giovanni says take the belt first!" one of the grunts shouted, and they unbuckled it and yanked it right off. I managed to grab one of my pokeballs as the belt was being removed, and got in a little tug-of-war until the ball unclipped and dropped to the ground. Unfortunately, it made me lose my balance and fall on my tailbone. The ball that came off my belt hit the floor of the cave button first, and it clicked and popped open. Hydro Gun materialized, looking slightly confused, then realization sprung to his face. He blasted away the nearest black-clad thugs with Hydro Pump and then dodged a net or two with Rapid Spin, knocking out a few grunts in the process. I got up and held my ground, and Hydro Gun helped me keep my pack away from the goons as we held them off back-to back.

Their sheer numbers worked to their advantage, though, and Hydro Gun was soon worn out. It was looking bleak for me now. They had my whole team, and the one pokemon I actually managed to rescue was running low on juice. I saw only one way out of this.

"Hydro Gun, use Rapid Spin to get my belt back!" It was a desperate gamble. He might not even get there, and the rest of the grunts could get at my pack in the meantime.

Speaking of which, they had backed off and sent out their own pokemon. Hydro Gun ignored them and began to spin, then ricocheted all over the place, taking them out hard and then heading the direction my belt disappeared to.

He got hung up on a big clump of black-clothed bodies when he was almost there. Now we were both cornered, as the other Team Rocket grunts closed in on me, too. Hydro pumps surged out of the thick area Hydro Gun was in, blowing away nets and pokemon and people. They increased in rapidity and pressure the longer it went on. I knew he couldn't go on like this forever. Someone had to give.

Suddenly, a bright, white illumination filled the room, shining up from the clump that contained my Squirtle. Team Rocket backed off a bit, watching in awe. One tried a net launcher, but it didn't turn out so well for him.

The glow faded, and Team Rocket began getting violently smashed aside and blasted with water. The parting of the black sea continued to a certain point, then there was a scream pleading for mercy, and immediately after, more Team Rocket were pummeled aside in a path leading back to me. When the wake in the crowd neared me, the grunts got smart and backed off, not wanting to take another licking. A short figure emerged, carrying my belt and looking awesome.

"Wartortle!" he declared, handing the prize to me. Hydro Gun then turned around and took down another flying net from the air.

"Yes!" I yelled, throwing out my other pokemon into battle. Bossplant nodded approvingly at Hydro Gun and began clonking heads with Vine Whip. Ash Scratched and pummeled and torched all opposition, and the Twins worked with Mimien to confuse and poison their foes. My team proved too much for Team Rocket to handle, and they called for retreat and ran off, leaving their great big drill behind. Hydro Gun watched them leave, then fainted with exhaustion. Bossplant, Ash, and Mimien worked together to blow up the drill, and I let Hydro Gun nap a bit before reviving him.

Before continuing down the tunnel, I stopped and contemplated what they were doing here. Obviously, they had a secret plot, but I could only guess what it was. Why drill through miles of rock to get here? It didn't seem to make sense. But it did seem like they were waiting for me. "Belt first, Giovanni's orders?" That was pretty specific. They apparently already didn't want me to mess with their operations anymore.

It was now so dark that my night vision was failing me, so I pulled out a flashlight and continued on.

**What was Zapdos doing on Route 9?! What is Team Rocket's secret plot? Will the Twins get up to speed with the caliber of the rest of Joseph's team? Find out in the chapters ahead!**

**Okay, Okay, that wasn't the best why to end the chapter, but good endings are hard and I needed to cap it about right there. I respond well to encouraging feedback, so if I'm doing good, let me know and more will come much sooner! If you see a chapter repeat, please PM me. I accidently replaced Ch. 10 with Ch. 9, so if you see something like that, let me know. One last thing, please vote on my opinions poll. You can get to it from my profile. Let me know how I'm doing, please!**

**Thanks again for your dedication,**

**Pokelegend**


	12. Chapter 12: Tunnel of Rock

**I'm very sorry this chapter took so darn long to get out there. I warned that I would be very busy during the school year, but I didn't know I'd be **_**this**_** busy. But now that my time has been freed up a bit more, you might be able to expect a new chapter every two or three weeks. Don't count on it, though. One more thing: this chapter may not be overly exciting as the last few were, but it **_**will**_** hopefully answer a lot of questions.**

A Cubone. I had just been walking down the boring, confusing Rock Tunnel for the last 15 minutes, totally eventless since the incident with Team Rocket. And now here was a Pokemon, blinking in the beam of my flashlight.

I acted quickly, throwing out a pokeball without even trying to weaken it. The small Bone Collecter pokemon threw its trusty bone and knocked the pokeball up against the stone walls, smashing it. The weapon circled back around and came back to Cubone's hand, completing its trademark move, Bonemerang.

That annoyed me a bit.

"Go, Hydro Gun! Use Hydro Pump!" I cried, sending my freshly evolved water turtle out. He fired a high-pressure stream of water but missed. Cubone took off running, and narrowly avoided a follow-up blast. He was gone in the blink of an eye. Hydro Gun sagged, feeling disapointed about the turnout.

_Whoah! _I thought to myself. _Ground types aren't usually known for speed! That Cubone was greased lightning! _I continued to ponder my recent strange encounters as I returned my Wartortle to his ball and travelled down the tunnel some more.

It got boring fast again. I spent hours just being lost, being sure but not quite sure were I was, thinking I was making progress but ending up were I thought I had been before. I encountered a few Voltorb, Geodudes and Zubat here and there, but not much exciting went on.

_I should have hiked around, _I thought glumly. _I haven't gained time! I've lost it!_ It was right then I saw another Cubone. Or was it the same one?

"Bossplant, I choose you!" I called, putting my Ivysaur into play. Cubone took one look at him, then turned tail and ran. He was long gone before Bossplant could charge a Solarbeam or use Vine Whip.

Continuing down the tunnel, I began to encounter the same Cubone more and more often. He was getting very irritating. He had changed tactics at some point, fighting my pokemon then running, unscathed, while I healed them. Nothing I did to knock it out or catch it would work, as it seemed to flawlessly avoid damage and capture.

And it ran faster than I could.

Eventually my flashlight ran out of batteries, and I had to replace them. Looking though my bag made me realize the supply crisis I was about to experience. I was low on healing supplies, food, and pokeballs. I also only had four changes of batteries for my flashlight. Three after using a change. The one thing I had plenty of was money. For a ten-year-old, I was filthy rich.

I continued to forge on, looking desperately for a way out, going deeper and deeper into the cave. Cubone harassed me endlessly. I was feeling pretty tired when I heard a voice down the tunnel.

I jumped and ran, happy for a change from the dark, morbid monotony and interact with someone. What if it was a trainer? A battle as a bonus! I was so happy. Any more of just cave and my mind would break.

As I got close, I could make out arguing. The weird thing was it sounded like just one voice, but coming from two people taking turns grouching at each other. I turned the corner and this is what I saw.

A guy was standing there, a Dugtrio in front of him. It was facing a Magneton.

"Hey! Magnet Rise is unfair! How am I supposed to hit him now?" he raved in the Magneton's direction.

Just when I thought my life was crazy enough, he zipped over behind Magneton and said, "Your fault for only teaching him Ground-type moves! Magneton, Thunderbolt!" Magneton rolled his three eyes but obeyed. The attack did nothing.

_Zip! _"Hah! Nah, nahnah nah, nah nah, nah nah, can't touch this, use Magnitude, Nah nahnah nah..." No effect.

"Magneton, Thunder wave!" Zilch.

"You know what? Why don't you give up? Can't touch this!" he said from behind Dugtrio.

"No! You give up!" Shouted the one behind the floating magnet pokemon.

"You!"

"YOU!"

He then commenced to fight himself, yelling turning, yelling, punching air, and yelling some more. Dugtrio and Magneton gravitated over to one another and did a little small talk while their trainer duked it out with the air. He got tired, and fell on the floor, exhausted. Then he got back up, looked back down, and said, "You two done?! I'm tired of watching you fight!"

"Yeah, I'm done." he said, back on the floor. Pause. "Ditto."

"And if you two stooges haven't noticed, we have company. Hello, Trainer, how about a battle?" He lay back down on the floor again and turned and looked at me twice, then got up twice. Dugtrio and Magneton came around in front of him.

"Huh? What's going on?" I asked. I had seen a Zapdos in the wild and survived it, but for something you don't see every day, this took the cake.

"Oh, my name is Nat. I have a multiple personality disorder. I have more than one 'me' in my head." I noticed he seemed to change inflections slightly. "No, you don't, stupid, stop trying to make yourself look crazy! You only _act_ like it to get attention!"

"Nat, Nathen, stop it!" He turned to me. "I'm Nathaniel. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand. I hesitantly shook it. "Sorry about those two. Nat thinks he has a weird disorder. Nathen disagrees. I, for one, don't know what to think, but they both act pretty strange." I nodded. Suddenly everything made sense. This guy was three people in one. He must be really crazy to get like this, but Nathaniel version seemed perfectly sane.

"I'm Joseph. How about a battle?" I said.

"That sounds awesome! Me first!" yelled Nat.

"No, I already called dibs! Remember? I get to fight the first trainer we bump into!" interjected Nathen.

"No dibs!" cried Nathaniel. "We'll just have a triple battle."

_Triple battle? I've heard of double battles, but triple? _I voiced my concern.

"Wow, Kanto _is_ behind! Okay, a triple battle is three on three. We do it all the time in Unova." Nathaniel explained helpfully.

"So I send out three, and then, uh, you, ...all send out one?" I asked awkwardly.

"Yep, let's do it! Dugtrio, are you ready?" Nat said excitedly. The Ground-type nodded.

"All right! First dibs on next guy then! Ready, Magneton?" called Nathen, receiving an okay from his Electric/Steel type.

"It's decided! We challenge you, Joseph! Go, Dodrio!" Nathaniel finished, releasing a large, three-headed bird from its ball.

"It would be so nice to have Klanky right now," Nathen thought out loud.

"Challenge accepted! Go Bossplant, Ash and Mimien!" The pokemon took battle stances, sizing each other up.

"Alright! Nat said first. "Dugtrio, begin with Magnitude. But wait for Magneton's Magnet Rise!"

Nathen was next, stepping quickly behind Magneton. "You heard the man, use Magnet Rise!"

Last Nathaniel gave orders to Dodrio: "Dodrio, use Fury Attack on Ivysaur!"

My turn for commands. "Bossplant, start charging a Solarbeam. Ash, use Ember on Magneton, and Mimien, use Telekinesis on Ash and Bossplant to reduce damage!" Normally Telekinesis does damage by smashing the target against the floor or ceiling, but here it was helping to dodge.

The action played out quickly. Dodrio attacked first, nailing Ash a couple times with its beaks, but missing the final few times due to Telekinesis kicking in. Ash was next, but instead of taking out Magneton, who was using Magnet Rise, he Slashed Dodrio angrily. Dugtrio, seeing Magneton's move, used Magnitude. Bossplant shook it off easily, but Mimien was brought to his knees.

Round 2: Dugtrio takes out Mimien but misses Ash completely and hardly touches Bossplant with Magnitude. Ash and Dodrio continue to trade blows till Dodrio conks out, outmatched by Charmeleon rage. Magneton lands a T-bolt on Ash, weakening him but activating Blaze ability. Dugtrio then receives a Solarbeam to the face, er, faces and can't shake it.

Finally it was down to Bossplant and Ash vs. Magneton. Nat and Nathaniel had only one pokemon each, and I wanted the Twins to fight together. Magneton takes an Ember and knocks Ash out with _another_ Thunderbolt, but gets a Sleep Powder from Bossplant.

I sent out the Twins and had them both use Double Kick. Bossplant added a tiny amount of damage with Vine Whip. Magneton was beaten.

I tried to take an honest amount of prize money, but Nathaniel made Nat and Nathen cough up cash too. So I got triple prize money. I felt a little wrong because it was taking advantage of him and I had plenty money, but Nathaniel insisted.

I felt sorry for him, so I used my dwindling supply to heal his pokemon. We parted as friends and I went right back to the monotony of the tunnels again. Cubone still messed with me. After a while, fatigue overcame me and I sent out my pokemon to guard me as I slept.

I woke up some time later feeling refreshed. I asked Mimien if he had gratified me in my sleep again and he shook his head. The Twins must have really forgiven me. I decided to call a round of training. I had the Twins fight everyone else, and they did good. They never won, but they came surprisingly close. I continued until I found my supplies almost out. I was down to one change of batteries, and it looked like I would starve if I didn't find something soon.

The monotonous monotony was monotonously killing me. It was so monotonous, monotony became the word I associate the Rock Tunnel with. Cubone still wouldn't leave me alone.

I was down to my last Granola bar and my last change of batteries when I came to a large opening in the tunnel. The huge chamber was almost as long as a football field, and just a little wider. the ceiling was about 30 feet up. But most remarkable of all was the lighted mini-mart in the corner. Compared to the room, it looked exactly like a lemonade stand. I ran up to it.

A guy was sleeping at the stand, but as I approached, he woke up and sat bolt upright.

"Oh, Hi there, Trainer. Welcome to the Underground Mart. We sell valuable goods to trainers in need who pass though here. What do you need?"

I thought for a moment. "Everything."

He hooked me up for more food, six more changes of batteries, pokeballs, and healing supplies. He had a few other people working there, and one asked if I would be interested in a Rock incense. I asked what it did. He said it boosts power of Rock-type moves and may be able to calm an angry Onix. I went ahead and bought it because I wanted to support their business, tucking it away for later. _Maybe I can give it to someone who can use it, _I thought. I remembered to ask if they had a phone. They did.

"Hello, Professor Oak, this is Joseph. How are you?"

"Joseph! Good afternoon! I'm fine. Were are you right now?"

"The Rock Tunnel. It's been miserable."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. How's your training going along?"

"Good. The Twins have caught up a lot, and everyone else is doing good, too."

"What level are they?"

"Level? Oh, wait-" I slapped my head. The pokedex was even more useful to me than an ID. It also told you what level your pokemon are! I had forgotten.

"I forgot about the Level Scanner! Here, I'll scan them now. Hold on, Professor." To make a long story short, I sent them out and scanned them. Bossplant was at level 21. Hydro Gun was one level below him, and Ash was level 21. It was all coming back to me now! They had evolved late. They were way above evolving level and they had only evolved recently. Mimien was at the same level as Hydro Gun, and the Twins were both at level 15. They should evolve in a level or two.

I passed all this to the professor. He was impressed. They were all ahead except for the Twins, who were barely at the right level for my progress.

After thanking the guys at the Underground Mart and heading out, I went once again into the same pattern of being lost, doubling back, and nothing being familiar, all the while dealing with that slippery Cubone. I was lost for a long time. I fell asleep from getting just plain tired three or four times. After being close to literally sick of the cave, I finally climbed up on a huge rock formation and sat down, giving up. The long, winding caves had gotten the best of me.

_What happened? I used to be a great trainer! My life was so easy! I didn't deserve this! _I thought, depressed, feeling sorry for myself. _Now I can't even beat a pesky Cubone!_ I chipped at the formation with a rock, continuing to stew and feel worthless. I realized I had forgotten to ask for a map to the exit. It didn't help.

This went on for few short minutes, until the stone formation shifted. I started, but before I had any time to really react, I was flung against the wall. I fell to the ground, stunned. I watched, immobilized by fear as a huge Onix rose up and roared angrily. My body found the initiative to move when it tried to Pound me. I was about _this _close to being a human pancake.

"Go Bossplant!" I screamed. He started charging a Solarbeam as soon as he left the ball, but got Pounded hard and fainted. Next I tried my Wartortle. He used Hydro Pump, but it only made the huge beast more angry. Hydro Gun ended up getting the same treatment as my poor Ivysaur.

Ash was told to use Metal Claw but used Ember instead. He didn't last to see Mimien's Barriers get shattered like they didn't exist. I sent out the Twins last. They stared up at the impressive monster with frightened eyes. I thought for a second that the Onix would spare them out of sympathy, but they got Pounded mercilessly anyway. Right at that moment, Cubone appeared. He didn't even know what hit him.

I was out of pokemon. Just like that. The good news was that Onix appeared to be calmed down just a bit. The bad news was that he was still angry and out for payback for his chipped eyebrow.

Then I remembered. _Angry Onix- I've heard that before! Today!_ I pulled out the Rock incense. Onix raised his tail, determined that _this _time, he won't miss. He breathed hard, but suddenly caught a whiff of the little object in my hand. It's eyes widened and it seemed to forget what it was mad about. it lowered its tail as well as its head, looking at me studiously.

"Uh, I need to get out of this tunnel. How close am I to an exit?" I asked. It stared blankly. I sighed, then walked over to Cubone. He was awake, but stunned. He started to rise, but I put him into a pokeball. He had no strength to resist and was caught.

I turned back to Onix, then got an idea. I crouched on the ground and drew pictures in the dirt showing I wanted out and didn't know the way. Realization sprang to Onix's face, and he turned and lead me through the winding tunnels, clearing blocked passes and digging new ones until I could see light.

**Well, there you go. Thanks for reading, and thanks for not hating me for the wait. Or if you do hate me, sorry, I didn't wait that long just to make you suffer. No, I'm not the worst person in the world, but I'm working on it. Give me an encouraging review please, or I don't think I'll ever work up the modivation for next chapter.**

**'Til later,**

**Pokelegend**


	13. Chapter 13: Phantoms

**Christmas is coming! I would like to make a holiday special chapter for this story, but it's a bit early in the story for that. Oh well. I realized my story is taking a different path than the games, but I decided to keep it that way. Makes it more unique.**

The light was blinding but glorious. I stepped out of the cave and took a wonderful breath of clean, open air. Being finally out of that cave felt good.

I turned back to Onix. "You want to come with me on my journey?" I asked, pantomiming to convey the meaning.

Onix shook his head and tuned to leave. "Okay, bye." I said, waving. Onix waved with his tail and retreated out of sight back into the cave. I watched him go, a bit disappointed that he didn't want to join me. Oh well, water under the bridge.

I came a ways down the road and turned a corner to find a guy in a business suit getting mugged by a bunch of Team Rocket thugs.

"Get away from him!" I yelled, tossing out my Charmeleon. He growled and spewed fire in the air. That caught the black-clad gang's attention. They stood up and pulled out their pokemon. Predictably, they had a Rattata, an Ekans, a Koffing, and a Zubat.

"Ash, Metal Claw them all!" I ordered. Ash shook his head and peppered them all with Embers. Rattata was beaten and so was Koffing, but Ekans and Zubat had avoided serious damage. The fallen foe's owners looked shocked. I was too upset with Ash for disobeying to be smug.

Ekans used Bite on him and Zubat used Leech Life. He didn't look too hurt.

"Alright Ash. Use Smokescreen and throw off their aim!" Ekans sprang toward him, and Zubat closed in for another round. He ignored my command and Metal Clawed them instead, slashing them out of the air with one swipe. I would have tried telling him to use Ember to get him to use Smokescreen, but the enemies were defeated.

The punks ran away, though they didn't seem as worried as I thought they would be. That bothered me. I helped the man to his feet.

"Thank you so much, Trainer! How can I ever repay you?"

"Oh, it's okay. I don't charge for a rescue."

He thought a moment then pulled something out of his suit coat. "I want you to have this as thanks," he said, holding out a funny-looking object to me, "It's a Silph Scope. I work as a Silph Co. representative, and it's the latest thing. It will let you see phantom's true forms though their disguises."

"No, thanks, I don't need payment. No gift necessary." I said, trying to be polite.

"Please, take it. I insist. You'll probably need it, seeing as you're headed to Lavender. Besides, it needs a field test, and I would like it if you could tell me if it works."

My eyebrows went up. "You don't know if it works?"

He looked slightly uncomfortable. "No, I was sent down here to find somebody to test it. I was almost to Lavender and then I got jumped. Then, you came in out of nowhere and saved me. Even if it doesn't work, I still owe you a debt of gratitude." At that point I just took it.

We parted ways then, as he had to head back to Silph Co. to take care of business. I headed toward Lavender Town with his phone number and the funny gadget. It looked like a pair of night vision goggles with a head band and a strap that goes over your head, attaching to the back of the main band.

I was absent-mindedly examining my new toy as I walked into the town. I looked up and saw the streets empty. A huge tower rose seven stories high, and there was a Pokecenter with buildings peppered around it.

I turned and headed toward the tower. A Team Rocket grunt was standing out front. He caught sight of me and whipped out a walkie-talkie. I only got close enough to hear "...yes it's the kid, get ready!" and he hung up, grabbing for a Pokeball. He released a Venomoth.

I opened with Mimien. I told him to use Psychic, but Venomoth used a surprisingly strong Bug Bite and took him down in one hit. I recovered from my initial shock and sent out Ash. I told Ash to use Ember, but he curled up for a nap. Venomoth used Toxic and poisoned him, waking him up, and blew him away with Gust. He hit the dirt and ran up to attack, then fainted from poison. This guy had one _serious_ bug. Team Rocket is usually too lazy for training strong Pokemon. There had to be an explanation.

I considered my remaining options. I had Hydro Gun, but I couldn't see how he could possibly deal damage to that thing. Bossplant was part Poison type, but that would not protect him from a super-effective Bug Bite. That left the Twins. The Twins! They had been doing better lately, and they had no type disadvantage.

I sent them out with Hydro Gun, who used Hydro Pump and knocked Venomoth out of the air. While Venomoth Toxic-ed him, the Twins closed in with two collective Tackles. Hydro Gun alternated with them, using Withdraw and Rapid spin to reduce damage from Venomoth's long-range attacks as the Twins compounded the damage their turtle friend dealt.

The battered moth finally fainted and the Team rocket punk retreated into the tower.

I headed for the Pokecenter, and as my pokemon were getting healed, I overheard from somebody that Team Rocket stole some important trainer's pokemon and was using it to guard Lavender Tower, as well as that a man named Mr. Fuji got abducted. The rumor was he was being held hostage in the tower. That was all the information I needed.

I rushed back to the tower and went in. The first thing I saw was graves. Lots and lots of graves. It filled me with a sickening feeling. I weaved my way around the graves and got to the stairs. They were creaky. At the top of the stairs, I found a whole bunch of Team Rocket people. They just bolted up the next flight of stairs as soon as they saw me, yelling the whole way. At the top of that flight, I found even more of them, but this time they challenged me. I sent out Bossplant, who wiped out their pokemon easily. They, too, ran up the stairs, but on the next floor I didn't see any thugs in black. Confused, I ascended the next staircase and found myself confronted by a strange specter.

It made a shrill, shrieking noise and the temperature seemed to drop 30 degrees. I was freaked out, but I took out the Silph Scope and put it on. I leaped back in surprise at what I saw.

It was a Marowak. Its ethereal form shifted and pulsed, and its cold, empty eyes penetrated me with an accusing stare. It pointed its bone club at me in a gesture of challenge.

I thought quickly, and then sent out Hydro Gun. He recoiled in shock and fear at the apparition, and I realized he couldn't see what it really was. I slipped off the goggles and forced them onto his wide Wartortle head. I could tell his eyes widened after looking though them, and he looked much less scared. I looked up at the ghost and found it still looked like a Marowak.

Hydro Gun fired off a fear-empowered Hydro Pump, which coursed through the strange form, staggering it, but not seeming to actually hurt it. Then it used Bone Rush and felled Hydro Gun in one hit. I took the scope off of hi head and sent out Ash. He just fainted at the sight of the specter, but a blow to the head woke him up, and after I showed him what he was fighting, he gathered his wits and tried to slash it to no avail. A follow-up Bone Rush took him down.

Next I sent out Bossplant, who resisted getting smacked around by the phantom before loosing a mighty Solarbeam that blew it apart. It just re-formed a second later, though, and finished Bossplant with a crushing blow.

Mimien fought hard, but his Psychic powers seemed to have no effect and he got battered hard by the ghostly bone club. He fell after many rounds of abuse.

That left the Twins. They popped out of their Pokeballs, and after seeing the foe's true form, they charged forward. Thing 2 took a smack from the bone as his sister smashed into the enemy, who tripped backward and got back up just as quickly. The Twins held on longer than they probably should have been able to, attacking, taking hits, and attacking again. They became little blurs, flying back only to run in for more.

Their forms began to glow, and they turned shining white, which seemed to drive back the ghostly foe. They grew larger and bulkier, and as the glow faded, a Nidorina and a Nidorino stood there, ready for battle. They redoubled their onslaught, fighting harder and harder as the Marowak was forced to switch from attacking to defensive tactics. The battle raged on, harder and harder, till the Twins collapsed from exhaustion, and the phantom stood over them in triumph.

I recovered my pokemon and bolted as I heard an unearthly scream. It was followed by many other creepy noises, but I was too busy trying not to break an ankle running down the stairs to pay much attention.

As I made it to the front door, a tremor wracked by body, and I fell to the floor. I looked back toward the first-floor staircase and saw a dark, almost solid wind. That was enough. I scurried like a Krabby and bolted out the door. It slammed behind me, and everything was quiet.

I had my pokemon healed at the Pokecenter, and as they were handed off and put in the machine, as Nurse Joy recounted the tale of the Mother Marowak. It was a sad story, and not very long, but it explained the encounter I had. A while back, when Team Rocket was in its early stages, they poached Cubones to sell their skulls. A mother Marowak was killed in defense of her children. Her ghost now haunts Lavender Tower, getting vengeance against any cruel humans who foolishly go to the fifth floor.

After hearing the story, I sat and thought. My team had been helpless against her. Team Rocket must have had a secret way around, because none of the floors had any sign of the missing old man.

Then, I had an idea. I went to the PC and swapped Mimien for a particular pokemon. I immediately headed out to the tower and ran up the four flights of stairs. I came to the top, and there was the specter, shielded again, cold and spine-tingling. The Silph Scope revealed the mother Marowak, whose accusing eyes burned with cold hate.

I sent out Cubone(I had no time to nickname him), who looked thoroughly scared. The spirit's eyes widened in recognition and the hate melted away, replaced by a more... _positive_ emotion. Cubone's eyes widened too, as the form revealed itself without aid from the scope. The dark, cold tower began to feel warm.

The ghost and the small bone collector took a few steps toward each other watching each other in disbelief, then collapsed into a hug. My guess had been right. The Marowak had been reunited with her young, who was alive and well. A tear slid down her skull helmet, and they separated. She looked at me with new eyes, and lifted her bone and pointed it at me again. But this time, a warm feeling crept through me, and the specter seemed to billow, fade, and blow away. Cubone cried.

I patted his back and he looked at me with those sad, sad eyes and I knew, he didn't want to go with me on my journey, he wanted to be free. He wanted to stay here where he could receive comfort from his mother's memory. I left him and headed for the next staircase. I had a hostage to save.

The next floor was swarming with Team Rockets. One look at me and they burst into a huge fit of commotion.

"Hey, it didn't work!"

"-but the ghost-"

"You know orders, so get-"

"-Giovanni says-"

"-but what about the drill and Zap-"

I sent out all of my pokemon to defend me and keep themselves from getting stolen in their pokeballs. There was a whole lot of Poison types and Rattata, as well as a few Raticate that my team had to take down. A ghost pokemon peeked out from behind a gravestone and then scared a small clump of Team Rocket, then Licked some of the Poison type enemies. Team Rocket retreated up the stairs, defeated. One more floor to the top, I thought.

The ghost turned to me, and I recognized it as a Ghastly.

"Thanks for your help," I said. It nodded playfully as if to say, "No big deal."

"You don't like them being in your tower, do you?" It shook its head. "I don't want them in here either. I'm also conducting a rescue. Wanna come along?" It tilted in the air, then nodded. "Okay, let's go!" I said.

I went up the stairs with my new friend in tow. Team Rocket was making a last stand there. Me and Ghastly took care of them fairly easily, and they ran out of the tower screaming. Ghastly stuck his tongue out at them as they fled. There, in the corner of the room, was an older man, all tied up. I sent out bossplant and he used Cut to sever the ropes. I pulled off his gag.

"Thank you so much, young man. I was held up here for a few hours and was losing home. Those evil people were talking about some kind of trap and I was afraid my would-be rescuer would come to harm. Here, have this." He handed me a small flute.

"Oh, Mr. Fuji, it's okay, I don't need anything. I was just trying to do the right thing."

"No, please, I would like you to have it. It can awake sleeping pokemon. You may need it some day."

"Oh, uh, okay, thanks! Come on, let's get you home."

After I got Mr. Fuji back to his house, I called the Silph Co. guy to tell him the scope worked.

After that I remembered something, so I headed back to the tower. I went to the fifth floor and found Cubone standing over a certain grave. I patted his head, and offered a moment of silence.

**This chapter's ending has been changed. I think it's much better than the old ending, but it's probably still not the best. I may think of an even better way to put it later.**

******I would like it if you could give suggestions for trainers that Joseph could run into and possibly battle. I would like it if you could tell me their name, favorite catchphrase, personality, what pokemon they would have, how experienced they are, where they might appear, and so on. The more information you give, the better I can write for your character and the better I can avoid putting them OOC(like I probably did with Mr. Fuji in this chapter).**

**Please review and inspire me for the next chapter!**

**Until later,**

**Pokelegend**


	14. Chapter 14: The Third Badge

**Okay, okay, I haven't written as much as I planned to for the holiday break, but I just haven't had the inspiration. Well, at least I managed to get this chapter out. Now please note: I will address EVERYTHING that smells fishy in this story eventually. Another thing, if it appears to have no flow or a lot of parts don't make sense, READ IT SLOWER. One more thing, I am not a misanthrope, but the nature of the games is a one-man show and my story will stay that way for a while. Sorry for the recent drop in quality in the last couple chapters, I will try to fix that in the coming chapters.**

I stayed in Lavender town for a few days, and there was a mysterious lack of Team Rocket. When I felt like travelling again, I set out West toward Saffron. I fought a bunch of school kids waiting for the underground tunnel to be accessable, and then some biker punks. I had a few close calls, but none of them managed to beat me.

I couldn't get to Saffron because the security guard wouldn't let me pass because of construction going on, and I couldn't use the underground tunnel, either, because it got plugged up. I headed back to Lavender to try going South on the oversea boardwalk.

I was passing back through Lavender when I was stopped by an old lady. She waved a funny-smelling burning stick around and chanted in a creepy, wavering voice:

"The mark of spirits rests on you, young one. Here, take this Spell Tag, and they will follow you no more!" I was a little weirded out, and made no move to take the funny little piece of paper with strange runes scribbled all over it.

"No thanks, I think the next guy needs it more than I do," I said, not doing well on masking how uncomfortable I was.

"Take it, ta_aaa_aake it! It will protect you from their harmful influence! Taaake it!" she sang, so I finally snatched it out of her hand and ran for the Southern exit.

"Farewell young traveller, and may you be rid of the curse of losssst souuullllllllls!" she called after me as I ran out of sight.

I kept running for a little while before I got tired and slowed down. After I had been walking for around five minutes, the rough, unpaved path suddenly gave way to ocean dropping away from the clifflike edge. It was high tide and the water was nearly on top of the boardwalk that stretched away into the horizon. A cliff rose up out of the water on the right side, and open ocean stretched away opposite it.

I pulled out the funny-looking piece of paper that I had stuffed haphazardly into my pocket and, after looking it over for a couple seconds, flicked it into the grass. I sent out my team to walk with me while I strolled along the boardwalk, because the fresh air was nice and the view was spectacular. Hydro Gun immediately jumped into the water and swam along with me.

The boardwalk had long snaked away from the South exit to Lavender and I had passed a couple trainers when the trouble started. Ash(Charmeleon) was walking along next to me when he jumped and whipped around, glaring at Bossplant.

"Char! Char charmeleon char!" he growled, and Bossplant looked slightly confused. Ash held up his claws menacingly, and Bossplant started to look angry himself.

"Whoah, whoah, what's going on here?" I asked them. Ash turned and pantomimed something.

"Huh?"

He looked a little impatient and pointed forcefully at Bossplant, then leaned forward and stuck out his tongue, wiping it on the air and pointing at himself.

"He... licked you?"

I didn't have time to see his reply because I heard a big splash behind me. I whirled around and saw Mimien and Thing 2 looking over the edge of the boardwalk at Thing 1, who was thrashing around in the water. Hydro Gun swam up and helped boost her out of the water as Mimien hauled her the rest of the way up, carefully avoiding pricking himself on her poison spines. Hydro Gun wasn't so lucky. He had been injected, and he rolled over on the walkway, turning green. I gave him an Antidote, and he started to return to his normal color.

Thing 1 turned and glared at her brother, who looked surprised.

"Nido?" he asked, tentatively.

"Rina nid nidorina!" she fumed, and if looks could kill, Thing 2 would be dead.

He initially looked a little hurt, then grew angry. They leaped at each other and started tussling. Ash and Bossplant were back at it too, and Hydro Gun had popped back up onto the boardwalk to try to separate them.

I was trying to sort out the confusion when Mimien pulled on my shirt to grab my attention. He was pointing in the air. I followed his finger and there was a Gastly, laughing his head off. When I noticed him, he laughed harder and louder. My two quarreling Starters stopped fighting and looked up, as well as the grappling Twins.

The mirthful spirit noticed he had our attention, so he stuck out his tongue at us and flitted out of sight. My Starters looked at each other and so did the Twins. An awkward silence pervaded until the murmured apologies started floating up. Hands(or feet or Vine Whip) were shook and it was all cool again.

The rest of the trip down the boardwalk was uneventful except for the point when I met a fisher dude and he gave me his Old Rod. After that was the Snorlax.

I came up on him not long after the fisherman. He was enormous, and he blocked the entire path. He was crushing a sign. I yanked on it, but it was wedged too tightly to pull out. I prodded to big pokemon with a stick, and it rolled over away from me, revealing the words.

It read:

West to Vermilion

South to Route 13

Vermilion sounded good. After going there, I could head North to Saffron, then West again to Celadon and take the Cycling Road South to Fuchsia. Then I could see if there was anything good on Route 13, and go wherever after that.

But first I had to do something about His Royal Bigness. A quick analysis showed that climbing over him was not an option. It meant I would have to wake him up.

I yelled and screamed for five minutes straight as well as poked him with the stick some more, and he still wasn't awake. That meant plan B. I told Ash to fight him, but my oh-so-helpful Charmeleon just curled up for a nap. None of my other pokemon's attacks were waking him up, not even when Thing 2 charged and poked him with his horn. The big guy just reached down and scratched itself as if it were just an itch.

I just plunked down to think at that point. I thought long and hard, so long that all my pokemon took the hint from the Snorlax and took naps. I wasn't coming up with anything. I got a little bored and annoyed with myself for not thinking of anything, so I started rooting through my bag.

The first thing I pulled out was my Badge Case. I looked at the front of it for a bit, then opened it up. Two badges. I had, no, my _team_ had earned them both in less then two weeks before now. I closed the case and put it away. Next I took out my Pokedex and looked at it for a bit. _Not entirely useless, _I thought. It reminded me that I should probably scan my team to see what level they are.

My Starters were coming along nicely. They were all around level 25. The Twins were catching up too, at level 19. Mimien was level 22.

I couldn't think of anything else to do with the dex, so I put it away. I rooted around some more and pulled out the Silph Scope. It sent a shiver down my spine to think about my encounters with the Marowak ghost back in the tower. It made me think a little about Mr. Fuji. I absentmindedly pulled out the flute he gave me.

_The flute!_ Suddenly I remembered that Mr. Fuji had said something about it. _what was it?_

That's when it came to me. _It wakes up sleeping pokemon! _I played a simple little tune on it, and my whole team lifted up their heads from their naps, trying to see what was going on. Snorlax was finally awake, too. He rolled over and looked at me indignantly.

"Mimien, use Confusion!" I called. He completed the attack but got sat on. I had to withdraw him to get him out from under the bulk of the Snorlax. I sent him back out, but he was KO'd.

"Allll-righty, then, Ash, fight him!" Ash leaped forward and swiped furiously. The big road hazard didn't like that, so he opened up his mouth and let loose a bunch of pink bubbles. _Yawn attack! I should have known!_

We were down in seconds. The bubbles popped when they neared my pokemon. Ash dropped first, followed immediately by Thing 1 and Bossplant. Snorlax contentedly collapsed back asleep as bubbles were still everywhere. The rest of my team fell unconscious as the bubbles ruptured near them, and very abruptly, everything went dark.

I woke up again later and looked at my watch. I didn't check it before I fell asleep, and there was no way to tell exactly how much time had passed. The best I could figure, I had been asleep two hours because I was hungry now and it was after lunch. I looked around and realized I was the first one awake. I cursed myself for selling my Awakenings after getting the flute. Then I got an idea.

Snorlax was not happy about the flute being used again, but how could he argue when I provided lunch? When he was done eating(which only took about five seconds), he fell back asleep. I tried using a pokeball, and just like that, the road was clear! My pokemon cheered as we ran across, and the I looked back. The pokeball had clicked.

I couldn't believe my luck. The darn Snorlax who had depleted my food supply in three bites, blocked the road and put me to sleep was caught!

After the celebrating died down, I headed for Vermilion. Before I got there, though, I fought a bunch of Trainers in the tall grass just outside town. I met one Trainer about my age with a powerful little Voltorb. I still beat him, but it was very close. I advised him to add more pokemon to his team. He told me to watch out for Vermilion's gym leader, Lt. Surge, because his pokemon were very powerful- his Voltorb had been fried by Surge's Raichu.

I exchanged see-you-laters with my new friend and kept going. A little ways down the path, a small yellow ball rolled out in front of me and popped open. It was a Sandshrew.

"Hello little guy. Go, Bossplant!" I intended to catch him. "Bossplant, use Stun Spore and follow up with Vine Whip!"

The little guy was surprisingly nimble. He rolled into a ball and completed several Rollouts before Stun Spore caught up with him. He got a taste of Vine Whip but broke out of the first pokeball I threw. He then proceeded to blind my Ivysaur with Sand Attack. I switched out for Hydro Gun, who started with an upper hand with Rapid Spin before Sandshrew finally outsped him with built-up Rollouts. I just had him use Withdraw at that point so that Sandshrew could wear himself out.

And wear himself out he did. He wasted a bunch of energy trying to pound on my huddling Wartortle, and the second Pokeball I threw did the trick.

My team was full, so the ball energized an went to the PC. I healed my pokemon and kept moving, a little concerned about how I needed to stock up on healing supplies again.

A short walk later, I came to a huge mound of dirt with a large entry hole in it. A sign posted out front said Diglett's Cave. I ducked inside to find an old man and a ladder descending into a hole.

"What's going on in here?" I asked the man.

"Oh, I keep watch over the Digletts. There is a Golem that recently moved into their cave and they can't do anything about it. Frankly, neither can I. You are one of the few people curious enough to come in here."

"Where is this Golem?" I asked, mildly interested.

"Oh, he's down there somewhere. I don't recommend going down there unless you have some powerful pokemon."

I decided to take the risk and descended the ladder. It was, as you can probably guess, really dark. I pulled out my trusty flashlight and flicked it on.

That proved to be a mistake. A whole bunch of tiny brown heads turned toward me, and suddenly I was being mobbed by an army of mole-like pokemon. I was being jostled and slammed all over the place, and I held on to my flashlight for dear life, screaming my head off. The Digletts pummeled me for the better part of two minutes before a roar sent them scattering to the edges of the cave.

The huge, spherical pokemon stomped into my wavering flashlight beam as I shakely got to my feet. It shielded its eyes, growling a complaint.

"Bossplant, go!" My Ivysaur took a battle stance. The Golem roared and charged. I saw at once that he was going for a Body Slam, and yelled my first command.

"Bossplant, Vine Whip to avoid damage!" He braced himself, and just as the hulking pokemon got within three feet of him, he extended his vines and wrapped them around the foe and leaped up. The strong vines extended his jump all the way over the brute and landed him behind his attacker, then straightened out as they were pulled to their limit. Having his target removed so suddenly had left the Golem barreling toward me as the vines went taut. Bossplant strained, and smashed his foe into the wall behind him.

Golem didn't like this at all. He grabbed the vines and yanked them off of himself, spun them and the unfortunate Ivysaur attached to them over his head, and threw his combatant across the cave.

Bossplant hit hard, and barely got to his feet. The Golem barreled toward him, roaring, and I withdrew my Ivysaur just before impact. Golem smashed into the wall and staggered back, very angry but slightly confused. It didn't seem to be hurt yet or even slowing down.

"Go, Hydro Gun!" I called, and my Wartortle flew from his ball. "Hydro Gun, use Hydro Pump but aim it at the cave ceiling!"

I knew Hydro Pump was an inaccurate move, but the ceiling was just about impossible to miss. Hydro Gun nodded and blasted a hole in the ceiling. A shaft of light penetrated the darkness, spotlighting a circle right in front of my pokemon.

Golem appeared in that circle almost immediately, careening at Hyrdo Gun at somewhere near 50 miles per hour.

"Rapid Spin!" was all I had time to yell, and he spun into his shell right when the foe slammed into him. It didn't stop Golem but it kickstarted my Wartortle's Rapid Spin. He flew all over the cave, pounding Golem over and over. Golem didn't seem to be affected by the onslaught but grew quickly frustrated by the speedy shelled attacker. He started grabbing at the air frantically and managed to catch my water turtle in a vice-like grip.

The Golem squeezed, and Hydro Gun was forced out of his shell.

"Hydro Pump, NOW!" I screamed, and Golem had no idea what had hit him. He was blasted up against the wall, leaving Hydro Gun on the cave floor. My Wartortle picked himself up out of the dirt, wincing. Bad sign.

"Hydro Gun, return. Bossplant, I need you again!" I recalled my injured turtle and sent Bossplant back out. Bossplant still didn't look good from getting thrown, but he was my failsafe, and began drawing solar energy through the ray of light.

"Now use Solarbeam!" Golem was charging again at this point, but got blasted by a powerful beam of Grass-type energy. He staggered, then fell, sending shock waves around the cave. He rolled back to his feet again, but Bossplant had already charged another beam and fired again. Again Golem got to his feet, And I realized he wasn't gonna give up that easily.

"Bossplant, Sleep Powder!" I called. If I couldn't break his resolve as it was, then I would soften it. The attack worked, and I had Bossplant nail him a bunch more times till he woke up. He tried to roll to his feet but got Solarbeamed again, and fainted.

A big cheer rose up from the Digletts, and they were jostling me again, but this time they were parading me around the cave like a rock star. Bossplant was getting carried, too. They deposited us by the light beam and began gibbering in Diglett-ese. The crowd was parted in places and Digletts came bearing gifts. I sent out Hydro Gun and gave him and Bossplant potions to help them recover as I inspected the presents. A Rare Candy. A brown disc labled Dig, which I recognized as a TM. A broken folding bike. Another Rare Candy. A nugget.

I thanked the Digletts and told them it was Bossplant and Hydro Gun that saved them, I just helped, and asked them if one of them wanted to join my team and fight alongside the pokemon that saved them from their oppressor. They all looked at each other and backed up, and I didn't see any heads nodding, just shaking.

"Suit yourselves," I said as I packed up to leave.

"So, did you get beaten up by the Golem?" the old man asked as I got to the top of the ladder.

"No, the Digletts pummeled me just before he showed up. I beat him."

"Say that again? I need to adjust my hearing aid. I thought I heard you say you beat the Golem?" He fiddled with the object hanging off the back of his ear.

"Uh, you heard fine. I ran him off."

"I must be going senile."

"Alright, well, if you won't believe me, I'll get going now. Just look for yourself and you'll find I'm not lying. Bye."

To make a long story short, I left the cave. I was long tired of caves.

I finally got to Vermilion. A cruise ship was just departing. The words on the side identified it as the SS. Anne. I scanned the people on the deck for anyone I might know, and sure enough, there was Ash(the trainer), Misty, and Brock. I also spotted Jesse, James and their annoying Meowth. Suspiciously, they were doing nothing suspicious. James appeared to be holding a Magikarp. I looked closer at the guy selling it to him, and realized James had just been scammed by the salesman from the Mt. Moon Pokemon Center. The boat was moving away more rapidly now, and they were shrinking in my sight.

I was interrupted in my scanning of the deck by being tackled to the lower body. I hit the ground hard and took a moment to make sense of what just happened. Some younger kid was on top of me yelling something. As my vision cleared, so did what the kid was yelling.

"Spearow! Spearow! I wanna trade for a Spearow!"

"Hold on, kid! Can you- get, uh, off me and tell me what in the world is going on?!"

He scrambled off of me and started talking faster than a Pidgeot can fly. I got up and dusted myself off.

"Say that again? But slower."

He took a breath and started again. "I want to trade you for a Spearow. I'm not old enough to go on my journey yet, and I want a pokemon that will evolve."

"I don't know too much about greeting people, but if you want to trade with somebody, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to tackle them. Not a very good first impression, if you know what I mean."

He started up again. "Oh, sorry, I've been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes. So do you have a Spearow?"

"No, but I could catch one easily. What would you trade for it?"

"This." He pulled out a pokeball and sent out a Farfetch'd.

"Oh, I already have one of those!" He sagged. "Hold on, those guys are almost extinct. They're really rare. How'd you get it?"

"My Grandpa gave him to me so I could have a pokemon before I start my journey. He's nicknamed Ch'ding."

A thought occurred to me. "Stay here, I'm going to get something."

I ran to the Pokemon Center and called up Professor Oak.

"Hey Professor."

"Hello, Joseph. How are you."

"I'm fine. How's Fencer? Is he doing okay?"

"Yes. In fact, ever since he's got here he's been training himself. He apparently regrets coming off your team."

"Can you put him in the PC please?"

"Sure thing! How's the rest of your team?"

"They're fine, thanks, Professor."

I put Mimien into the PC and pulled out Fencer, then ran back to the waiting kid.

"Go, Fencer!" I said, and out he came. The two ducklike pokemon eyed each other for a moment, and it became apparent why Fencer was so _different._ Ch'ding was lightish brown and Fencer was cream colored.

"Hey, your Farfetch'd is a different color!"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that for a while. I think he might be shiny!"

"Shiny?"

"Yeah, it's a super rare condition pokemon can have that changes their color. I must be the luckiest guy in the world! I found this guy in the wild."

"Whoah!" the kid exclaimed.

"By the way, how good at fighting is your Farfetch'd?" I asked, changing the subject to what I brought Fencer out for, "Fencer, how about you spar with Ch'ding a bit?"

The two birds nodded and started fighting like their sticks were swords. Fencer immediately went on the offensive, swinging carefully so as not to let Ch'ding slip in and tag him. Ch'ding blocked every blow expertly, and neither pokemon was able to land a blow. Then they switched tactics, making it clear that I needed to work on Fencer's defensive skills. Ch'ding started landing blows, but got poked a couple times when Fencer exploited his wild swings.

About five minutes into it, the Farfetch'd got tired and shook wings.

"I think you shouldn't try to trade your Farfetch'd. He's a good fighter and he obviously likes you." I rooted around in my bag. "Here, have some pokeballs. When you set out on your journey, you can catch a Spearow. And this guy here can be with you all the way, even if he doesn't evolve."

"Thanks!" he said, accepting my gifts. I remembered something, and looked over at the ocean. The SS. Anne was just a speck on the horizon at this point.

Just then I caught sight of a different kid running for the pokemon center, a fried Rattata in his arms. It was then that I remembered the Gym.

"Another victim of Lieutenant Surge, I see." sighed my new friend. "I wanna beat him when I grow up. I'll have really strong pokemon, stronger than his."

"I bet you will." I said. "In the meantime, I think I'll beat him. But first, I need a one-up on him. You know he uses Electric-types, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"The only type good against Electric is Ground. And Ground types are pretty much unaffected by electricity."

"I'll try to remember that," said the kid as my mind raced.

_I have no Ground-types yet,_ I thought. _Or do I? Nidoqueen and Nidoking are part Ground-type._ I sent out the Twins.

"You guys ready to evolve?" I said. They shook their heads frantically.

"Okay, fine. I only have one Moon Stone anyway." I put them back in their pokeballs.

_Now what? _ I thought, _I don't have any other options. None of the Digletts would join my team so- _And then it occurred to me. _Sandshrew! I can use him!_

I recalled Fencer and headed for the Pokecenter. Once inside, I released the Twins again and asked them if they wanted to stay with Professor oak for a while. They agreed and I sent them off. I pulled Mimien back out of the PC as well as Sandshrew. I sent the latter out of his pokeball. Fencer was still on the team, leaving me with six.

"Hey, there, little guy. I would like it if you could help me beat a Gym leader." I gave him a berry and he sat down, listening.

"I think I'll call you Spyke," I said, thinking of his evolved form. "we're gonna train really hard and beat him."

Just then another kid burst in with a crispy Pidgey. It startled Spyke and he looked a little worried when he realized it was gonna be like that with his future opponent.

"Don't worry. You're Ground type, and you have a good electrical resistance. C'mon, let's go train."

I trained him and the rest of my team for the following three days with the kid with the Voltorb. Voltorb built up Hydro Gun's electrical resistance and got some Ground resistance training from Spyke. Mimien, Fencer, and my other two starters got some decent training, too. I used the TM from the Digletts on Hydro Gun, and during training he taught Spyke how to use Dig. surprisingly, my Charmeleon was watching and learned it too.

It surprised us all when Voltorb evolved during training. I scanned the pokemon often, and to my delight, my starters went up three levels, Mimen went up six, and Fencer got to level 24. Spyke trained hard, and got all the way to level 27, but didn't evolve.

I stayed at Ch'ding's trainer's house every night. I woke up the fourth morning and sent out Spyke.

"You ready to kick some tail?" He nodded, and made a punching motion with his fist.

"Let's go."

I headed to the Gym and walked in.

"Welcome to Vermilion Gym!" a big guy with blond hair called as I walked in.

"Are you Lieutenant Surge?" I inquired.

"Why yes, I am! You here to challenge me, kid?"

"Sure am. Let's get started right now. Spyke, I choose you!" Spyke decided to make his appearance extra flashy by popping out in air, rolled into a ball, then bouncing off the floor and popping open with a look of fierce determination on his little rodent face.

"Alrighty then, I'll just start with Voltorb," said the Lieutenant, tossing out a pokeball and seemed to redundantly toss out another pokeball. Spyke grinned, because he had trained for a long time with one of those, and knew its weak spots.

"Voltorb, use Thunder!" _Someone__ is a little free with their TMs,_ I thought.

"Spyke, just use Dig." Spyke just stood there and took the giant lightning bolt like a champ, then dove underground. Voltorb nervously rose higher, eyes roving the gym floor for signs of the little shrew pokemon.

Spyke erupted out of the floor where Voltorb least expected it, and rammed the spherical opponent in the face. Voltorb spun the the floor.

"Fu- fuzz!" Surge said, catching himself. "Go, Pikachu!"

Spyke's confidence wavered when he didn't one-hit KO Pikachu, who nailed him with a Tackle. But then I had him blind his foe with Sand Attack and pound him repeatedly with Rollout.

I was pretty satisfied until Surge sent out Raichu, who avoided Spyke's Dig and then cracked him over the head with Iron Tail. Spyke spun around in a wavering circle, then collapsed.

I was pretty scared at that point. "Spyke, return. Go, Ash!"

My Charmeleon leaped from his ball. "Use Dig!"

It didn't exactly turn out that way. Ash decided to be a genius and use Ember. Raichu retaliated with a nasty Thunderbolt, taking my Charmeleon out one hit.

If it looked bad before, this was a nightmare.

"Hydro Gun, your turn." I said nervously, as he took battle stance. Surge took one look at him and laughed his head off.

"You would use a Water-type against _me?_" he chortled.

"Yep. Hydro Gun, Dig." My Wartortle burrowed furiously, narrowly avoiding a Thunderbolt. Raichu shifted back and forth carefully, sensing ground vibrations with the tip of his tail and twitching his ears, then leaped aside and loosed a thunderbolt as Hydro Gun burst from the floor.

But Hydro Gun didn't get knocked out, because he was holding onto a big chunk of dirt that got blasted apart. He flipped over and smashed Raichu away from him with his tail, then dived underground again. Raichu went back to predicting were he would pop up, but this time Hydro Gun outpredicted him and landed the blow.

Raichu still wasn't down, so Hydro Gun pulled the riskiest move I had ever seen and _grabbed Raichu's tail._ He got the daylights shocked out of him, but still managed to touch the tip of the tail to its owner. They both stood there, taking the electricity for a solid two seconds before both of them fainted.

A vein stood out on Surge's neck, but he kept his cool.

"You... got any more pokemon, kid?" he asked.

"Yep." I said, and sent out Bossplant.

Surge plunked down in a nearby chair. "Must be an unlucky streak," he mumbled, "Three kids have killed my win streak in less than two weeks. I must be losing my touch."

"So I won?" I asked, pulling out a Revive and using it on Hydro Gun.

"You sure did," he said, pulling out a Thunder Badge and handing it to me.

I sent out Spyke and revived him, too, and showed him the badge. He took it and held it high over head and danced with it, then shook hands with Hydro Gun. I took the badge back and put it in my case. _Three down and five to go,_ I thought.

**I think that's a good place to stop, don't you? Okay, maybe you don't. Anyway, I hope to make next chapter be just as long, and just as awesome. Speaking of next chapter, you will soon learn what Team Rocket is up to! Another thing, the reason Fencer is shiny is because I saw a shiny Farfetch'd in the Safari Zone in my SoulSilver Version. And I swear he was cream colored, not pink. And if you were tenn and an old lady was like that with you, you would run, too. (most likely)**

**On a different subject, happy new year and thanks for reading! New thing I'm doing- reviewers get sneek peeks at the next chapter though PM!**

**Pokelegend **


	15. Chapter 15: Team Rocket Exposed

**Hello once more, readers! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Haven't been getting reviews(*ahem*), so I haven't had much inspiration. Been wondering what the heck Team Rocket has been up to for a long time? Well, good, because I will make you wait about 100 chapters more. Just kidding. It will be revealed sooner than you expect. Broke 1,000 total views! Thanks, everybody!**

I said my goodbyes to my new friends in Vermilion before heading North to Saffron. I battled a lot of trainers along the way. My Pokemon gained a lot of experience.

I entered Saffron City and found a huge vista of buildings. The more I looked the more impressed I became. That's when I noticed the big crowd of Team Rocket.

My mind raced, and I found myself pulling Hydro Gun's pokeball off of my belt. The gathering of thugs got louder as all of their attention turned toward me. Then they did something that surprised me- they turned and ran, disappearing around the corner. I ran to the corner, then stopped, realizing they were probably laying a trap. If I ran blindly around the corner, I would probably fall into their clutches.

I thought carefully about my next move. I didn't want them to get away, but I didn't want to get suckered into a bad situation. I made up my mind and approached the building carefully, edging along the side and peeking as carefully as I could down the street.

Seeing nothing but an empty street, I quickly scanned the entire premises, including above me. Finding nothing, I carefully stepped out onto the street and strode around the corner, muscles tense. Everything was eerily quiet. _They were so loud just then! Where are they? _I thought, looking back and forth. It was like they vanished into thin air. I searched around a little more and decided that the coast was clear, but decided to not let my guard down in case it wasn't.

Nothing happened. If Team Rocket was trying to psych me out, they were doing a good job.

I decided to go see if the Gym leader was worth fighting. After searching around, I found the building I was looking for on the Northeast corner of the city. A big sign on the side of the building read:

Saffron Gym

Leader: Sabrina

I was considering whether to just bust in and take Sabrina down, but then again, wouldn't it be a better idea to go and train carefully beforehand? I needed a good gauge of how powerful she was first.

My ponderings were interrupted by a tap on my shoulder. A man stood there. He looked to be 30 or 40.

"Thinking of challenging Sabrina?" he asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Just wondering, about what level are your Pokemon?"

"All close to level 30. Why?"

"A word of advice: Don't lose."

With that he just sort of blipped out of sight. I couldn't believe my eyes. _What the heck is with the people disappearing without explanation in this city?! _I wondered.

Staring at the sign and thinking about the warning, I decided to leave it be. _I need more training, _I thought, turning to leave. There was a funny tugging sensation on my foot when I tried to take my first step, and cried out as I tumbled to the ground. A creepy cackling erupted out of seemingly nowhere as I sat back up and looked at my feet to find my shoelaces tied together in a fiendish knot. The maniacal laughing grew louder as the spherical ghost pokemon hovered into view.

"Very funny," I said, trying and failing to untangle the strange knot. "I could have broken my wrist!"

The annoying phantom stuck out his tongue and zipped away, leaving me to grumble about how he wouldn't quit bugging me. I figured it was the same Gastly who had harassed my pokemon on the boardwalk. Thinking back, he had done the same laughing, rude gesture, and leaving routine back there.

The knot was a puzzler, and time was getting short. It was just this morning that I defeated Surge, and now it was growing late. I decided to take drastic measures so I could find a place to crash.

"Go, Ash!" I called and my fiery reptilian pokemon appeared. He turned to look at me, but looked up instead of down because he thought I would be standing taller than him. His gaze met mine when he found me on the ground.

"Use Slash on my shoelace, please." He tipped his head as if to say, "That's an unusual command," but instead of his recently learned move, he blew an Ember onto the ground beneath the tangle and set it on fire. He grabbed his tail from behind him and blew the fire from it onto the knot to make sure it toasted evenly. He looked pretty happy tending to my problem. The smell was terrible.

In the meantime, let's just say I only wanted the _laces_ to be demolished, not my entire shoes. I needed a water source, fast. _Water._

"Hydro Gun, go. Kindly put out my shoelaces," I said, trying to shove my Fire Starter away from me, only to get my arm burned. I would like to say I sounded really calm and under control, but that's not exactly how it came out.

Having not learned Water Gun as a Squirtle, he used his higher powered substitute.

The result was a wet pile of ashes, soaked socks and an angry Charmeleon. He leaped on top of Hydro Gun and the two started tussling around. I didn't have any time to be relieved about being able to separate my feet, seeing as I had to separate my grappling Starters.

"Alright, that's enough! Both of you shake hands." They grudgingly shook hands, glaring at each other.

"Look, that was my fault. I should have called Ash back before dousing the fire." I said. Their looks softened, and they muttered slightly more sincere apologies.

"I think it's close to bedtime, so good night!" I sucked them back into their pokeballs. Clipping them on my belt, I ended up looking down at my shoes. They were burned on the inner sides, and they were coming loose from the lack of knots. I headed for the nearest shoe store.

My new shoes came with very little excitement except when I accidentally released Fencer and he knocked down a bunch of merchandise using Swords Dance, supposing he could get an upper hand in the nonexistent battle. His punishment had been picking it up and putting it back as the store owner directed.

I crashed in the nearest apartment, not bothering trying to get a nice one because even though I was rich for a traveling ten-year old, my money had its limits. As I lay awake in bed, I thought about my approach to things like Gym leaders and Team Rocket. I kept rushing into things, and powering through them. This made me realize that, eventually, my pokemon _wouldn't _pull through, and things could turn out very badly. I decided that I needed to slow down and _think_ before facing these challenges. Sleep took me before I realized it.

I headed West the following morning with an intention for some hard training. There were some trainers I battled outside of Celadon city, but mostly I spent most of my training time fighting wild pokemon and pitting my team against each other. I worked on type resistance among my starters while Mimien, Fencer, and Spyke trained in their own little threesome.

It was going well for a while until a Team Rocket Grunt burst from the woods and ran toward Celadon, picking up speed after seeing me. I recalled my pokemon and charged after him.

We ran past a sign that read Celadon City, and soon after passing some houses, the black-clad thug disappeared into a small purple building. I opened the door just in time to see him vanish through a cleverly hidden door in the wall. I ran up to the wall to inspect it, but the entrance was already shut. Searching all around produced no results.

I went back outside and looked around. Having been intent on my pursuit, I had missed the major details of my surroundings. There were a lot of houses, and a big department store towered over everything else, although there were some high-rise buildings competing for tallest. Toward the Southwest of town, there was the definite roof of a Gym. _I think I'll check that out. Might be worth my while._

After heading down there, it soon became apparent that I wouldn't be getting in. The sign out front read:

Celadon Gym

Leader: Erika

_No boys allowed!_

I stared at the sign. It all looked uniform and professional except for the message at the bottom neatly scrawled in pink paint. A breeze wafted a strange scent from the sign to me, making me realize it had been perfumed.

_They can't deny me a Gym challenge based on gender! _was my thoughts as I went ahead and went inside. Big mistake. About fifty heads turned my way and a huge chorus of feminine gasps rose up.

"Get out!" somebody shrieked, and the girls all lined up to block the entryway.

"Can't you read?!"

"Yeah, no stinky boys allowed!"

"Out, out! Get out, you smelly ape!"

At this point they all started shoving me out the door and raining sissy kicks to my shins. I protested loudly, but to no avail. There was just too many of them.

"Hey, I have just as much right to challenge Erika as the next guy!" I yelled, but it was no use. They finished forcing me out the door, saying, "No, the next guy is a boy and has no right either!" _Slam!_

I got up, grumbling, and dusted myself off. "All right, let's see what the authorities have to say about this!"

I marched right up to the police station and to to my surprise, there was Officer Jenny. She explained that she wasn't the same Jenny I met at Viridian, but she was her cousin. I asked what she could do about the Gym and she told me probably nil, but what _I_ could do is find Erika in her perfume shop and ask her for the challenge. The girls would listen to her.

So next I headed to the perfume shop. A sign hung in the window that read,

Closed

Open hours 10:00-5:30

Great. She was at the Gym. Since she had to be outside to make contact, I needed to wait for tomorrow for her to be at the shop, seeing as it was 6:00 right now.

I took up that time training in some tall grass West of Celadon and shopping at the Celadon Department Store. Turns out they sell TM Dig there. I bought a couple. Dig is very handy. After a while, I got tired of training and explored town. It was a bit late but I didn't feel very tired. At one point a guy on a bike came riding up to me.

"Are you Joseph Brian?" he panted, checking a piece of paper that I suspected had a photo on it.

"Yes, I am. What's going on?"

"Can I see your Trainer's License?" I showed it to him.

"Okay, good. Bill sent this." He handed me a pokeball.

"What's in it?" I asked.

"There's a note. I have to make another delivery for Bill, so see ya." And just like that, he was off like a shot.

I looked at the note. It read:

This pokeball contains one of my favorite pokemon, Eevee. It is pretty rare, but my Vaporeon recently had a litter and I can't have too many of them running around the lab. Take care of him! -Bill

_P.S._ scan the pokeball with your pokedex so the computer system knows it's yours.

I took out my dex and scanned the ball. It waited a second, then energized and vanished. _Shoot, _I thought, _How am I supposed to spend time with my new pokemon with my team full?_ I decided I would pull him out to play every time I took a pit stop at the Pokemon Center.

I found a place to spend the night, again being careful to not spend too much.

The following morning, I set out bright and early to train. I worked resistance for a while, then rotated each one against another. Ash was being a little annoying because he disobeyed a lot of my orders and wouldn't go easy on Fencer or Spyke. He seemed to be too darn competitive for them. _Why won't he do that in legit trainer battles?! _I thought, frustrated.

10:00 rolled around surprisingly fast. I went to the perfume shop and found who I was looking for, just now flipping the sign in the window from "closed" to "open."

"Hey, you're the Gym Leader Erika, right?" I asked as I came through the door.

"The one and only." she replied. "How do you like perfume?"

Her abrupt change in subject jammed the gears in my brain for a second. _Crap! What am I supposed to say?_

She noticed my pause. "Well?"

"Uhhhh... well, I- wait," I sputtered, and finally worked out what to say, "Uh, I don't really think my opinion is, uh, valid. I'm not a perfume critic, after all."

"Hmmmm..." was all she said.

"It's... okay?" I said, trying to give the right answer, even though I realized I needed to polish my acting skills.

"Close enough. So what are you here for? Do you have a special someone you're trying to find a gift for?" This made me uncomfortable. I mean, I'm only ten! I always had trouble dealing with girls, anyway.

"Actually, no. The girls won't let me in during Gym hours. I'm trying to *ahem* earn another badge." I said, realizing how smooth I _wasn't._

"Oh, yes. I get this a lot," she sighed, "Well, I just opened up shop and I don't want to loose business. So can you come to the Gym later today? I'll be able to let you in."

I stood there for a moment thinking. _I've waited all morning for this! My pokemon are itching for another decent battle! This would be the best time for it! _Then I cringed, thinking, _A guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do, _and with that, I blurted,

"I'll buy some perfume!"

Erika, whose back was to me tending to business at this point, turned around.

"Say again?" she asked.

"Uh, I'll buy... some perfume..." I said, feeling like a total idiot. I hoped it would work. I also hoped nothing weird was going on in my brain. After all, she is like, what, eight, nine years older than me? Probably more than that. That would never work out. Yikes.

"Okay, what kind?"

"Uhhhhhh... uh- this kind. I'll get three, no, five of these." I said pointing to some random bottles. She took them off the shelf and I paid for my purchase. As I stuffed the bottles into my bag, Erika said, "Alright. You just bought yourself a battle."

I felt awkward all the way into the Gym, which wasn't too far from Erika's shop. It felt like a long way for me. As we came though the door, there was a near-repeat of yesterday's proceedings, but with the major difference of Erika keeping the girls at a controlled level and me not getting attacked.

"He's a boy! This is a girls only zone!"

"He says he likes perfume. He even bought some. I declare him safe." Erika said.

"But he's still stinky!" one girl said, holding her nose. She was around ten feet away.

"Hey, I can't smell that bad! I showered last night!" I yelled in my defense. "Besides, you probably can't smell me from there anyway!"

"Yes I can! You just smell that bad! Please, Erika, can't we send him out? He's polluting the air!"

_This borders on obsession,_ I thought, but I decided it would be a good idea not to say it out loud, what with a Gym battle at stake. Then I got an idea.

"I know! How about I win my right to come in here!" The girls immediately rejected this, but then the leader herself piped up and saved my skin.

"I will let him in if he can defeat you in a battle by your terms. Decide on some rules." The Leader had spoken. The girls shut up and all crowded together, and whispered furiously.

"Okay, we've decided," said the one girl who had spoken up earlier. "He'll have to fight our pokemon himself. Without using his pokemon."

"No, you can't do that," Erika said, "both parties will use pokemon."

They put their heads together again and resurfaced a minute later.

"One pokemon of his choice against all of ours."

Erika turned to me, eyebrows raised. Everybody waited on me for a second.

"Challenge accepted," I said after a little bit of deliberation, "I choose Charmeleon. Go, Ash!"

My fiery pokemon leapt from his ball. So did a whole lot of Grass-types.

I hoped my plan worked. I was using a huge type advantage, but my pokemon was outnumbered somewhere around 50 to 1. My strategy was to be the brawn this time, and I hoped the girls wouldn't go for brain. I was also working with semi-unpredictable forces.

"Alright, Ash. This fight's in your hands. Have at it!" Ash surprised me by his reaction. I was surprised because it was what I wanted and not what I expected.

He just turned to me and grinned, and for a moment, I saw a flicker of Charmander in his eyes, that was quickly replaced by a flame of competitiveness.

Then it was all over. He leaped forward like a tiger, spitting Embers all over the place, Slashing and Smokescreening like a maniac. Some girls stayed calm while others panicked, and the calm ones instructed their flowery pokemon to use moves like Stun Spore and Sleep Powder. Ash, however, had trained with Bossplant and countered easily by burning the spores and fluffy powders away with his tail, barely pausing in his work of destruction.

The battle went on like this until Ash pummeled a final Bellsprout and stood there panting. The ground was littered with fainted pokemon, and there were about fifty expressions of shock going around the room. One girl had fainted herself.

"So, can I stay?" I asked, cheerily. Some of the girls coughed.

"Now it really _does_ stink in here!" that one girl fumed. And she was right. Even to my untrained male nose, there was the smell of burnt things and Smokescreen everywhere.

Ash tottered over to me, his energy spent from moving that fast and taking on so many foes. I gave him a Potion and he perked up.

"Char!" he said, triumphantly.

"Yes, I saw you out there. Good job!" I patted his head. He just glared and held up a claw.

"What?" I asked. He looked impatient and curled his reptilian fingers, as if to say, "Reward, please!"

"Oh, right. Here you go." I said, handing him a berry. He eyed it suspiciously and sniffed it. Satisfied they it wouldn't agitate his allergies, he took it and, well, _inhaled _it. Because of the way he ate it, it really didn't look like eating.

"Okay, I think he's earned his Gym battle, don't you?" Erika said. All of the girls grumbled, but none objected. "Let's get started."

We took our positions. She opened with Weepenbell.

"Go, Mimien. Use Psychic!" Mimien appeared and did as he was told. The supereffective attack severely weakened the foe, but it still managed to use Stun Spore.

"One more time!" I called, and Weepenbell got in a Vine Whip before going down. Mimien wasn't looking so good. Sure, he could still use Psychic-type attacks, but paralysis made him very vulnerable.

Erika's next pokemon was Tangela. He used Mega Drain and resisted two Psychic attacks before taking out Mimien with his own Vine Whip.

I sent out Ash next. "Ash, kindly do your thing." I instructed. I had realized how to use him effectively.

Suddenly, Tangela wasn't doing so well. He got Slashed and punched a few times, then was taken down by an Ember. The only real damage Tangela managed to do was a quick Vine Whip before the fiery reptile descended on him.

The last pokemon to appear was Gloom. Erika looked pretty confident, so I took the clue and withdrew Ash in favor of Fencer. Gloom used Stun Spore, but Fencer used Swords Dance and Aerial Ace to avoid the spores and strike Gloom. He rebounded back and Swords Danced around a few Solarbeams, then flew back in for one last Aerial Ace before Gloom hit him with Sleep Powder and Solarbeamed him while he was down.

Ash reappeared. I was getting a little scared because I was about to run out of type advantages. Bossplant would probably not fare as well as the last three of my team had.

"Ash, this is it. Either you win a badge, or we go down in defeat and have to suffer through the girls picking on us. It's all up to you." Ash nodded and waded into battle.

At first he fought through a bunch of Razor Leafs to reach his opponent, then opened with an Ember. Gloom tried putting him to sleep, but he burned it way with his tail and Slashed the foe, getting a Razor Leaf full in the face in retaliation.

Ash was stunned when he fell on the ground, feeling his face. He apparently didn't think it would hurt that bad. But the flame on his tail burned ever brighter, and I know Blaze ability had taken hold. The battle was pretty much over when he peppered Gloom with Embers and it was all Gloom could do to keep his leaves from catching fire, and he finally fainted. I got ready for a fourth, but none came.

Ash looked surprised he had won for a second, then got all excited and leapt up, did a little dance, and slashed my pant leg.

I looked up at Erika. She didn't look mad. Instead, she said, "Good job," and handed me my Rainbow Badge. I showed my Charmeleon and he smiled approvingly. I put it in the fourth spot on my Badge Case and looked at my team's achievements up to that point. Then I closed the case and put it away.

"Alright, stupid boy. You've smelled up our Gym enough. Now get out of here." was all that one girl could say.

I left the Gym with the feeling of triumph lingering. I just sort of wandered around town for a little bit afterwards, feeling pretty good for myself. I started thinking about my next Gym challenge. _Sabrina. What was her type again? Oh yes. Psychics. _

I thought some more about it. _I need a type advantage. I don't have any Ghost pokemon, or any Ghost-type moves. _I thought a little more. _I know! I'll fight Psychics with Psychics. Plus there is another type many people overlook in Kanto, and that's Dark type. _My whole plan was starting to unfold. I headed for the department store again.

After a lot of looking around, I finally found the TM I was looking for. It was way expensive, but the prize money from Erika was more than enough to pay for it. I taught the move to Mimien and spent the rest of the day training my team. I mostly focused on getting Mimien up to speed and working on evening out the leveling of my pokemon.

Training was starting to bring up memories. I thought of the Twins and Shocker. Then there was training Spyke for three days before taking out Lt. Surge. Then I thought about the Team Rocket guy that disappeared into the Game Corner yesterday. I decided to check it out. But then again, when I looked around, it was late. I changed my mind and set my goals for tomorrow.

The following morning, I set out and trained until after lunch, when I remembered my resolution to check out the Game Corner.

There was nothing new except for the major difference of a Team Rocket guy guarding the secret entrance. I walked right up to him and asked,

"So what are you up to?"

"Scram, kid." was all he replied.

"Seen any switches or buttons that look suspicious?" I continued.

"I said _scram,_ kid! Get outta here!" he said, looking annoyed and slightly worried at the same time. I noticed the poster behind him was falling down at the corner, exposing a _very _suspicious-looking switch.

"I'm talking about a switch kinda like that one," I put in, pointing. He jumped, whipped around, and realizing the flaw in security, flattened the poster back up.

"Get out of here, brat! You didn't see anything!" He was sweating now.

"Let's just see what my Charmeleon has to say about it, then." I said, letting him free.

The guard took one look at my fiery reptile, and recognition dawned on his face. He fairly tore the poster off the wall, and with that he leaped into the portal he had opened up on the wall. I grabbed Ash and ran in after. The hidden door closed a split second later.

I was in. The place was mostly dark, with poorly lit black walls. Here and there an "R" was scrawled in red, many of them spray paint, but a couple of them crayon and one or two artfully rendered in actual picture paint. In some places, pictures hung on the wall. They ranged from garish to super fancy. There was also junk all over the place.

I met surprisingly few Rocket members, and sent them packing with my excessively trained pokemon. _Great to be me! _I thought, reveling in my self-achieved position of power. This was not something I had felt in all my time at home or school.

At some point, a Rocket grunt came out from behind a file cabinet.

"Back off, I have a nasty Charmeleon who has chewed up and spat out a whole lot of your gang's poorly trained pokemon!" I warned, unclipping Ash's ball from my belt.

"Believe it or not, I'm on your side," he said, and unzipping his Team Rocket suit, he pulled out a badge wallet. He opened that to reveal a golden badge that said, "Special Intelligence Unit, KBI" on it.

"Wait, what?" I asked, mildly surprised.

He sighed. "That means I'm a secret agent, kiddo. I've had to mop up your messes. Call me Agent Greenthumb," he replied.

"Messes?" I asked, still unsure. Ash's pokeball was still in my hand.

"Yeah. You've done a pretty sloppy and embarrassingly muscleheaded infiltration. I've been your cleanup crew."

That annoyed me a bit, but then I realized he was right. Those Rocket punks all ran away, and every single one of them had the potential to raise the alarm.

"Okay, but I don't feel like I can trust you. What if you stole that badge? What if your disguise is disguising the fact that you're a Team Rocket?"

"Hmmm. I suppose you're right. You can't really fully trust me, can you. And by the way, if you knew KBI special agents, you would also know that we know how to hold on to our IDs. Being a secret agent has to merit me something, right? Well, still, you can't take my word for it, because I could be lying about it."

It was a little weird how he seemed to be reading my mind about the lying part.

He went on, "I like you, kid. You would make a good secret agent if you could infiltrate better, since you're slow to believe strangers. Still, a word of warning: Those who believe everything is a deception are only deceiving themselves."

"I guess that makes sense," I replied. "But why did you show yourself to me? Why couldn't you just keep playing Ninja Janitor?"

"Ah, the conversation comes full circle. Sloppy infiltration, remember? You're coming to tighter security, with more Rockets and all kinds of traps. You won't be able to navigate, avoid traps and detection, or keep the alarm from being raised alone. I'll have to help from a distance to avoid blowing my cover, but you can keep going."

"Why do I keep going? Can't the KBI take care of Team Rocket on their own?"

He rubbed his head, making a face like he had a headache about how little I knew about this stuff. "Okay. Military force won't work, because they're way too slippery. Same for police, much to Officer Jenny's chagrin." He sort of snickered, then continued.

"Anyhow, the KBI is gathering intelligence to try to dismantle Team Rocket from the inside. We haven't been able to decide on anything, but recently some young trainers have been standing up to Team Rocket, and doing quite well. You're the first to actually break into one of their hideouts. We're planning on using you to flush them out of this place so they can't use it. They'll have to make a new hideout, and in the meantime, we can arrest them and figure out what to do with the organization as a whole. It's also a sort of double mission because we are acquiring valuable intel."

"So how are you planning on helping me, exactly?" I asked when he finished.

"Advice, and a bit of helpful equipment." He pulled a bag off his back and went through it a bit before he found what he was looking for.

"Duct tape," he said, holding up a roll, "fixes everything."

He tossed the roll to me and pulled out a much smaller object.

"An earpiece?" I asked, taking it.

"Well, yeah, we need _some _way to communicate."

Just then a Rocket punk came down a corridor and saw us. I reacted quickly, throwing out Bossplant instead of Ash and giving a Vine Whip command. Bossplant's vines wrapped up the thug and dragging him over too us, gagged.

We wrapped him up in duct tape and stashed him in a closet.

"And that's how it's done," said Agent Greenthumb.

A little bit later, after me and my Agent friend had split up, I was starting to piece together the weird things Team Rocket had been doing. Through the earpiece, Agent Greenthumb told me where to stop and go to avoid detection. I confronted Rocket grunts only when necessary, and navigated a lot of funny slider tiles. They propel you through a series of other titles, and you have to be careful not to lean or you could clip an edge and spin out of control.

I overheard from conversations that Team Rocket was on the lookout for Ash(the Trainer), Gary, some other random people, and me. I heard that they drilled in the Rock Tunnel as an attempt to stop me and steal my pokemon. It also served the purpose of awakening a young Zapdos and sending him my way before even getting to the caves. Since that plan didn't work, they diverted it into a power plant recently to scare everybody out of the plant, and take the plant over when the legendary bird left. The only problem in that little scheme was that it didn't move out. Zapdos nested, and they had no way to get it out.

Next, I learned they had somehow managed to steal a Venomoth that Gym Leader Koga was training. The idea was that it was already powerful and could take me on, and once my pokemon were rendered helpless, they could steal them and mug me to top it off. The problem was, if it was weak enough to steal, it was weak enough for me to beat.

I realized at that point that I should have rescued Venomoth, but I had failed. I guess Koga will eventually get him back himself.

When the Venomoth trick failed, the Mother Marowak was their backup. The thing with Mr. Fuji had been to lure me in there. they weren't quite prepared for me to beat the ghost, so that explained how I was able to beat them so easily afterwards.

I never did find out what happened back at Saffron, but I found that Gary Oak had been through some similar experiences to mine.

I was getting pretty deep into the secret base, and eventually Agent Greenthumb stopped me when I heard voices around a corner. I heard a groveling Rocket grunt explain the most recent failure with stealing a Trainer's pokemon. The next voice I heard sounded imperious and scheming. Agent Greenthumb said that it was Giovanni, Team Rocket's leader. If I could apprehend him, then Team Rocket's organization might easily fall apart.

"Alright, kid. Time to make a move. Let's see ho you handle the Big Boss." came over the headpiece.

I stepped out from behind the corner and announced, "The jig is up, Giovanni. We're on to you!" Noting his Persian, I pulled Hydro Gun's pokeball off my belt.

Giovanni looked surprised, but not quite as much as I suspected.

"Ah, one of the main troublemakers," he said, "came to arrest me in my home base. I knew you would show up eventually, and we've stayed in one place a little too long. A little warning, boy, we know your strengths- you mess with us much more, and you won't be training pokemon much longer."

He clicked a mic on his suit coat and said, "Abort hideout. Plan F failed. Initiate Plan G." Looking up, he said to me, "See you later, boy. If you don't blow yourself up first."

And with that, he turned around, shoved a painting off the wall, pulled a hidden string, and disappeared with his Persian and the punk into a disguised door.

I tried to chase him, but my pursuit was cut off by the door closing swiftly. I reached for the string, but Agent Greenthumb yelled in my ear,

"Don't pull the string, kid!" I backed off.

"Why not? He's getting away!" I protested.

"The string is rigged up to initiate a self-destruct sequence the second time it's pulled. The computer is analyzing it now- ah, thirty seconds. You wouldn't be able to get out in that time."

"Computer?" I asked.

"I have tiny nanobot probes crawling all over inside the walls. I'm using them to uncover pretty much every dirty little secret this place has. I can't be in three places at once, but I can try for two. We might as well get going. The KBI is moving in on this place."

Around an hour later, I was in the Celadon Pokecenter. There was big news. Bad big news.

"... off the ship safely, but we had just discovered that five people are missing: Ash Ketchum, Misty from Cerulean Gym, Brock from Pewter Gym, and two young adults named Jesse and James." It was Officer Jenny. The S.S. Anne had capsized, and the only ones who hadn't escaped, I knew personally.

Officer Jenny threw a bouquet of flowers into the water by the boardwalk. Watching through the TV, I saw them get wet and sink.

I sat back, stunned. Ash, my friend from childhood, one of my few and only friends, was dead.

**Actually, he's not. Anyone who has seen the show knows this. How about a little dramatic irony? Anyway, hope you enjoyed the nice, long chapter. Unfortunately, I plan for the next couple to be average length. I'm trying to make a good balance between long chapters and a lot of chapters. I just wanted there to be a lot of story in this one in particular.**

**Speaking of chapters, I need a certain amount of motivation and inspiration to crank them out. You can help me get inspired by posting reviews with either constructive criticism or praise, suggesting a trainer Joseph might fight, or taking my opinions poll, which you can find on my profile.**

**Until later,**

**Pokelegend **


	16. Chapter 16: Lose a Friend, Gain Another

**Sorry I took so long getting this chapter out. I've been busy and there has been a lack of reviews(*ahem **_**ahem**_***) to spur me on. However, I promised never to abandon this fanfic, an so I will continue to write. I just need time and inspiration, that's all. **

**Just a heads-up, this chapter is slowed down a bit and a wee, tiny bit depressing. I feel like it would be good for the story to get a bit deeper and give a reason Joseph is such a good trainer. Just remember, Ash isn't really dead.**

I spent the next four or five days mourning the loss of my friend. I came close to exhausting my money, and decided to buy a tent so I didn't spend all of it finding a place to sleep.

I mostly hung out in the Pokemon Center, slumped in a chair. I spent most of my time reflecting and crying, going through my earliest memories and working my way to the present.

Back on the first day of school, I got picked on a lot for being socially awkward. I would get called a kinds of nasty things. I was never very interested in girls, and this made the bullies think oppositely, but I can tell you right now I was not gay and never will be.

Ash was the first person to take me under his wing. He wasn't all that popular either, but we shared a collective dream of becoming Pokemon Masters. Ash set his goals on being "the best there ever was," but I said I would work hard and get as far as I could. If I became the best, so be it. If I don't reach the apex or am far from it, it'll still be a great ride. My friend reluctantly agreed with my attitude, but never let go of the "very best" thing.

Oh, sure, I had one or two other friends, but Ash was my closest. We promised each other to work hard in our Pokemon Study class, so as to be fully ready when we started on our journeys. Ash also said we should battle one day, once our pokemon are developed a lot. I fully agreed.

Gary Oak was our main rival in studies. He didn't pay much attention in the beginning of the Pokemon Studies course when we were talking about the early stages of raising a team, and mostly coasted on kissing up to the teacher and tricking his dad into doing his homework. (I had to snicker when I thought about this, how I had exploited the High and Mighty Gary Oak's Achilles' Heel the day we got our starter pokemon.)

As the years wore on, though, Gary got more into it and made very good grades by his own work. We were forced to hear about every A+ he earned, as there was no escape from his bragging.

Me and Ash got decent grades, too. I hovered around A's and B's in most of my classes, though I specialized in Math, Science, and Pokemon Studies. Ash didn't do quite so well, with a couple C's thrown in the mix, and I often had to help him eek by in Pokemon Studies.

Gary wasn't a major bully, although he and Ash competed over almost everything. He didn't help much with our social status, and though he targeted Ash, he earned a load of annoyance from me. The real bullies were a lot worse, and they hardened my resolve to aspire to be a great trainer. If they ever became Pokemon Trainers, I would find them and fight them on MY playing field. If they didn't, I would take comfort in knowing they could never reach the level I had attained.

Ash and I were both inspired by my big brother, Caleb, who started his journey a year before I started school. The letters he sent back were amazing. Mom would read them at the dinner table and I shared them with Ash. Caleb was one of our major inspirations for becoming trainers, as he was the near-prefect role model.

Two years ago he toppled the Hoenn Elite Four, earning himself a place as champ in the Hoenn Pokemon League, but he resigned a few months later and moved on to Sinnoh, were he again conquered and works there to this day.

Thinking about Ash made be wish I had gone down with that ship. He had always had my back throughout school, and I had let him down. After all these years, I wasn't there to return the favor. The thought made me sick.

After a while, my quandary was interrupted by someone asking me something.

"Huh?" I responded, shaken.

"I said would you like to have a battle?" the stranger asked again. He looked around 20 or so, obviously either a late bloomer or a highly experienced trainer.

"Uh, sure."

"My name's Jack. What's yours?" he asked as we exited the Pokemon Center for our match.

"Call me Joseph," I mumbled.

"Let's get started. Pidgeotto, I choose you!" began Jack.

"I'll take Fencer," I said halfheartedly. If I had thought it through a little more, I would have picked somebody else, but at the moment, I was halfway detatched from the world. I almost didn't care.

The two bird pokemon popped out of their pokeballs facing each other, waiting for command.

"Pidgeotto, start with Whirlwind to disorient him!" Jack called strongly.

"Fencer... Aerial Ace." I said, not feeling into it. Fencer turned around, looking concerned. "What's the matter with you?!" his face seemed to ask.

I didn't have time to respond because Fencer was whirled into a little cyclone and then deposited on the ground. He was very dizzy, but didn't get up. He seemed to have caught the disease that was my low level of energy.

"Whoah, they don't usually give up that easily," Jack said quietly to himself.

"Strange," I mumbled, shrugging. "Fencer, you're done. Go, Ash." The nickname rekindled memories, cutting me like a knife.

"Pidgeotto, return. Go, Poliwhirl!" Jack called wisely.

Ash gave me a look that said, "What the heck are you waiting for? Say something!" as Poliwhirl took a fighting stance.

"Uh, right, do your thing." I responded.

"Poliwhirl, use Water Gun!"

Ash charged Poliwhirl, but it was without enthusiasm and without any form of tact. He took the water gun directly to the face, and went down swinging one claw. He never made contact, and his usual ferocity was gone.

"Ash, return." The words felt weird in my mouth. Somehow alien. "go, Bossplant."

Bossplant came out of his ball. He immediately detected something wrong with me.

"Poliwhirl, enough. Pidgeotto, come back out!" Jack called again. Normally I would be switching as much as this guy does, for type-effective benefits. But I cared a lot less about this battle and made a whole lot of stupid mistakes.

Bossplant actually fought harder than normal instead of wimping out, in an effort to rekindle my competitive mood. Pidgeotto's type advantage got the best of him in the end, and at the point were he could probably take two more Wing Attacks, he only took one before fainting.

Jack stopped after Bossplant was defeated. "What's going on? Your team looks a lot stronger than they've been showing."

"I lost a friend recently." I mumbled in response.

"Oh." He paused. "I can see how that might effect the battle." Another pause. "Tell you what. I won't claim to win an unfair match, and I definitely don't want to take advantage of someone who's grieving. This battle never happened."

"Thanks," I said, only faintly registering the kind gesture.

"What other pokemon do you have?" he asked after a couple minutes of silence.

In response, I sent them out. "This is Hydro Gun, here's Spyke, and this is Mimien."

"Nice. I also have an Exeggcute."

My mind was tarting to wrap around the battle that had just taken place. _Did I really just almost get beaten? Because of the loss of a friend? This isn't right. Ash wouldn't want me to lose this battle for him. I need to respect his memory by continuing to be a good trainer._

"You okay?" Jack asked, noting my moment of distantness.

"Yeah," I replied, my voice growing stronger. "I'm gonna work to get back on my feet. Ash wouldn't want me to quit over him."

"Ash? Isn't that your Charmeleon?"

"Uh, yeah, long story." I said. "If you don't mind, I think I need to set off now."

"Okay, bye, Joseph."

"See you, Jack." I called to my new friend, walking toward destiny.

**Where is destiny, exactly? You'll find out next chapter! Okay, fine, it's a stupid, cheesy ending. Boo hoo. Endings are hard. Or then again, I'm just bad at them. I'll probably go back and change it later.**

**...Speaking of going back and changing the story later, I'm considering rewriting some parts long before this chapter. Look for changes in Ch. 13(Lavender Town), differences in pokemon Joseph catches, and a few other minor edits. I'll tell you when I do make them.**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Pokelegend **


	17. Chapter 17: Saving Silph

**Sorry it's been such a long time, readers! I have been VERY busy and haven't had much inspiration. How can you help with this? REVIEWING, of course! Now, I've been getting some constructive criticism from certain parties(*ahem*), for which I'm grateful, but I'd like to see a little more of what I've been doing right from these unnamed people. *Ahem, **_**ahempsychicshipping**_**ahem* Man, I need a drink of water...**

**Anyway, it's Spring Break, so I'll try to crank out two chapters this week to try to make up for my longtime absence. But remember, reviews help me keep going. If I haven't posted a new chapter for a while, a new review would be helpful. Oh yeah, and thanks for respoding to my poll! That helps, too! 'Nuff said. On with the show!**

The first place destiny took me was the Pokecenter. I had to do a pit stop after my brief battle with Jack. Except I couldn't get in. When I grabbed the doorknob, it wouldn't turn. I tried again. This time it turned, but the door seemed stuck. I propped my foot against the frame and pulled with all my might, but it was stuck fast.

"What's going on?" Jack asked, coming over.

"I guess this means an end to our awkward goodbye, huh?" I panted, stepping away from the door. "Suddenly it won't open!"

"Strange," Jack replied, "Here, let me try."

He grabbed the handle and the door swung open just like it had the last four days. With one minor difference, however- a purplish vapor seemed to drift out of the latch mechanism. It rolled out, expanding to bigger than a beach ball.

Ghastly laughed his head off(quite literally, actually), as if to say, _April fools!_ and zipped away.

"What was that all about?" asked a surprised Jack.

"That Ghastly has been tormenting me ever since Lavender Town. Makes me kinda regret getting rid of the Spell Tag the crazy old lady gave me..."

"Hmmm... well, crisis averted. In you go!" Jack said.

I walked in and got my pokemon revived at the counter. I sent them all out.

They all looked a little saddened and apathetic, like my depression was still draining their energy. Ash(Charmeleon) looked a bit grumpy.

"Come on, guys, perk up! Ash- no, not you, my trainer friend!- wouldn't want this. Were continuing the journey in his memory."

They perked. The prospect of adventure had enlivened them. Apparently since most of them had never MET my late friend, they were feeling my loss though me more than personally.

Jack came up to me again. "Hey Joseph, ever considered a traveling companion?"

"No, why? I mostly work alone."

"Well, see, it's been some time since my journey, and I lost the League Challenge. I fell out of practice. My pokemon have been restless, but I hadn't been able to rekindle the desire to travel and adventure. Pokemon love adventure. And then I saw you, and decided to battle you to try to raise both our spirits. I'd kinda like to be your traveling companion for a while. You know, get the ball rolling again."

I thought it over. The idea had never appealed to me, but then again, nobody had offered before. I really couldn't think of a reason to turn him down.

"Okay, sure. Like I said, I usually work alone, but I guess I can make an exception here or there." I looked at my assembled pokemon. "You guys want to walk?"

They all nodded eagerly. They had been pent up in their pokeballs for so long, it seemed a bit cruel to put them away again, and we could all use a refreshing walk.

"Let's go!" I stated, as a general announcement.

To make a long story short, we hit the road.

It didn't take long to get to the tall grass east of Celadon. I suggested we all train a bit. Ash tore into the grass, swinging his claws, and actually fished out a Rattata, which he went on to pummel the daylights out of. Jack sent out his pokemon, and they also began combing the grass with my team. Bossplant came up with a Meowth, and was assisted in beating it by Spyke. Pidgeotto found another Rattata.

Hydro Gun was pretty excited when he found a Vulpix. I restrained him, because Vulpix are rare. The little fiery fox looked intimidated by my Wartortle.

"Here, Jack, you can have this one. A fire type would do good on your team!" I called over my shoulder. Poliwhirl and Pidgeotto came over, but Exeggcute kept its distance. The wild Vulpix tried to run, but Spyke stood in the way and thwarted its retreat.

"Why don't you catch it? You found it." Jack said, reluctant to try to catch a new pokemon.

"I already have my own fire type. Plus my team is full. Your team needs more members. I've learned from experience that your team is best off with the maximum number of slots filled."

"Alright," he said, "Pidgeotto! Use Wing Attack!" Pidgeotto obeyed, and Vulpix looked like she was feeling it.

"That's enough." He pulled out a pokeball and tossed it toward the fox pokemon. She was sucked up, and a moment later, the ball dinged, signaling capture.

"Wow, that was unusually easy," I said.

"My Pidgeotto is pretty strong. The Wing Attack didn't leave Vulpix with much strength to resist." He sent the newly caught pokemon out of its ball. It still looked scared, and just because it had been caught didn't mean instant health. Jack used a potion on it and began carefully petting it. At first it looked wary, but eventually it looked contented and forgiving.

"There, you see? I'm not trying to hurt you. I want to be your friend." Jack soothed.

I looked back around at my pokemon. Ash had pulled three more wild pokemon out of the foliage, and was kicking them around. I told him to stop. They were all KO'd, so there was no point bruising them any more.

Finally we moved on, coming to Saffron.

"I've been here before," I said, "just last week. I was going to challenge Sabrina, but I decided I'm not ready to challenge a powerful psychic yet."

"I beat Sabrina's predecessor," Jack said. "It made the news when Sabrina took control of the Gym. Gyms can change leaders by a major challenge. The challenger fights using only the types used in the Gym. If they win, they can become the new Leader. Sabrina did that, but the old Gym leader hasn't been seen since."

"Strange," I muttered.

We decided to explore town. I had left early on my previous visit, and with Team Rocket gone, there were more people around. There wasn't very much that was too interesting.

-Except for the fact that people stayed away from the Silph Co. building. Upon investigation, we discovered that there was a Team Rocket grunt guarding the door.

"What do you want?" he groused when I drew near.

"Nothing," I said candidly, "just want to tour the building. I hear it's famous."

"Beat it, kid." Oh, like I hadn't heard that before.

"I still want in!" I said, trying my best to sound like a spoiled brat.

"I SAID BEAT IT!" the grunt roared, losing patience. He pulled out a pokeball.

I made my move. "Not if my Ivysaur has anything to say about it!" Bossplant flew from his containment unit. The grunt looked a little off-balance, but still let an Ekans free.

"Bossplant, use Stun Spore!" I called, and watched as the attack completed. Ekans was told to use Tackle, but was stopped it its tracks.

"Bossplant, now use Vine Whip!" This didn't have type advantage, but the brutalization made Ekans think twice. The venomous snake wormed forward, flinching from the beating. He managed a Poison Fang before going down. Bossplant shook it off easily.

The grunt turned for the door, but I was way ahead of him. Bossplant wrapped him up in his vines, and I took out my duct tape.

After stowing him in an alley, I returned to the front door. Jack, who had hung back the whole time, asked, "So what now?"

"Now we go in. Team Rocket might have set up a base here. We need to flush them out."

Jack looked uncomfortable. "I don't mess with Team Rocket."

"Come on, there's a good chance we'll get help from a secret agent. Wouldn't it be nice to get rid of those thugs once and for all?"

"I don't think we can get rid of them that easily," Jack replied unsteadily.

"Look, there might be people in trouble. Wouldn't you want someone to come help you? I never said it would be easy."

Jack sighed and said, a bit reluctantly, "alright, let's do this."

We went in. There were about five grunts in the lobby. A few of them were facing the wall, putting graffiti on it. Mostly red R's. The others saw us immediately. I sent out Hydro Gun and Bossplant, who proceeded to dowse them in high-pressure water and wrap them up in vines. I took care of them one by one, rolling them in duct tape and having Bossplant stuff them in a closet. None escaped, but Poliwhirl had to take care of a Radicate one of the grunts had sent out. We proceeded up the stairs.

The next floor had a lot of cubicles and file cabinets. We snuck around, ambushing a grunt here and there. Occasionally we came across a Silph Co. worker, who we promptly rescued and gave pointers on how to escape the building without getting caught or raising an alarm.

There was a nerve-wracking moment when a grunt stepped out of a cubicle, looking straight at us. It was as if he had known we were here the whole time. I recognized the face from somewhere, but I couldn't place a finger on it. Jack nervously sent out his Pidgeotto. Strangely, the grunt kept quiet until asking softly, "Who's your friend?" I recognized the voice. It was Agent Greenthumb!

"He's trustworthy. I wouldn't have gotten this far without him."

The supposed "grunt" nodded and unzipped the front of his disguise, pulling out the KBI badge to flash it at Jack. "I'm on your side. You don't have to sic your bird on me." Jack looked at me. "It's good. He helped me flush the Game Corner base." I replied.

Greenthumb zipped up his suit. "Can't say I'm happy you two showed up. It looks bad for my job, and no matter how many pointers I give you, you're still not professionals. Come with me." We ducked into his cubicle.

"I have control of the security cameras. That's why the alarm hasn't been sounded. Joseph, you're being much more stealthy than last time, but it still needs work. Normally I'd ask you two to leave, but right now you're an asset. Giovanni is on the top floor. If we can nab him, Team Rocket will be left leaderless and vulnerable. It would take some time for them to recover."

"So what's the plan?" I asked.

"You go up the building. You get Giovanni. You don't get caught. While I sit back, relax, clean up your messes, and risk my life and my career. Sound good?"

"Okay. Can I use the earpiece from last time?"

"Sure thing, kid. Just don't screw things up. We've talked too long. Keep moving."

I clipped the communication device on and left the cubicle with Jack. I was stating to get the feeling that Agent Greenthumb resented my involvement. Still, I was in on the mission, so there was no room for doubt.

We wound our way to the next flight of stairs, taking out Rockets now and then.

As we ascended the many flights of stairs, we found and freed more and more Silph Co. employees and had to wind around more and more junk. There were also more Rockets, and sometimes they had to be taken down in pairs.

Eventually, after lots of twists, turns, switchbacks, messing around with an elevator, and doubling back, we made it to the top floor. There was a long hallway, leading to a corner. We snuck up to the corner and peeked carefully around.

There was Giovanni himself, monologueing to an older guy who was tied up on a couch. I relayed my overview of the situation to Greenthumb, who told me to strike, because the longer I waited, the less likely I was to have the element of surprise.

"Hey Giovanni!" I called, stepping around the corner.

He turned, a look of slight surprise on his face.

"Yes?" he asked. I was a little surprised myself. His reply left me off-balance, and I hadn't actually planned what I was going to say.

"I- ...challenge you to a battle!" I said, trying to recover. I was really botching this.

"Very well. You've snuck into two of my bases now, and I think you've earned a lesson in why not to mess with me."

Jack, who had stayed back out of sight around the wall, found the courage to come around.

"Let's make that a multi-battle." he said with a bit more confidence than I would have expected.

Giovanni dipped his head, then said, "I open with Rhyhorn and Nidorino."

The indicated pokemon appeared.

"Go Mimien!" I called, going for type advantage.

"Poliwhirl, I choose you!" said Jack, following suit. I liked how the type balance looked- very much in our favor.

"Rhyhorn, use Take Down on the water pokemon. Nidorino, use Bulk Up." Giovanni ordered imperiously.

"Mimien, use Psychic on Nidorino!"

"Poliwhirl, use Water Gun!"

Nidorino puffed himself up, flexing his muscles and pawing the ground impatiently, then held his head as he glowed blue. His raised defensive skill did nothing to thwart the special-type attack.

Rhyhorn charged, but Poliwhirl was way ahead of him, nailing him with a small but concentrated high-pressure stream of water. The Rock/Ground type barely withstood the blow, but kept coming before ramming into a hastily thrown up Barrier from Mimien.

"Nidorino, use Horn Attack on the Mr. Mime. Rhyhorn, continue with Take Down."

"Mimien, use Telekinesis!"

"Poliwhirl, Focus Punch!"

Nidorino, who had survived the supereffective mental attack, sprang forward to stab Mimien, but got thrown into the wall by an invisible force instead. He toppled a couch as he went.

Rhyhorn managed to bully his way through the psychic barrier, causing Mimien's concentration to snap. It roared in victory only to receive a Focus Punch to the face.

"Again!" Giovanni roared.

"Mimien, defend yourself!"

"Poliwhirl, finish Rhyhorn with Water Gun!"

Nidorino bounded over the couch, nailing Mimien pretty good in the stomach with a poisonous horn. The mime pokemon flew into the wall, then crashed to the floor. He hadn't been able to stop the blow due to his previous barrier being broken.

Rhyhorn ran for another Take Down, but got blasted by a second jet of H2O. He had built up so much momentum that he kept on skidding into a desk, toppling it.

My mind raced as I picked my next pokemon.

"Mimien, return. Spyke, I choose you!" Mimien was sucked back into his ball and was quickly replaced by my Sandshrew.

"Kangaskhan, ready for battle!" said Giovanni, returning his Rhyhorn.

"Alright! Spyke, use Rollout on Nidorino."

"Poliwhirl, Brick Break Kangaskhan and then use Hypnosis on Nidorino!"

"Nidorino, Horn Attack Poliwhirl. Kangaskhan, Crunch Sandshrew." Giovanni called after a few seconds of thought.

Spyke sprang into action, leaping toward Nidorino and rolling into a ball before impact. He bounced away, popping up and down as his direction reversed. He rebounded for a second, more powerful attack. Nidorino, indifferent to the beating, charged Poliwhirl, who easily outclassed him by sailing overhead in a flip. He landed by bringing down a blow on Kangaskhan. The large pokemon tried to land a crushing bite on Spyke, but his was rolling at high speed toward Nidorino caused the move to miss.

Spyke crashed into Nidorino, who looked slightly jarred but still shook it off. He rounded on Poliwhirl, who emitted psychic beams and put him to sleep. Kangaskhan improvised and tried to Comet Punch the agile water type, who again sprang away from harm. Nidorino was smashed by another Rollout, and Giovanni recalled him. Nidoqueen roared from her ball to replace the fallen teammate.

"Okay, Spyke, redouble your efforts on Kangaskhan!"

"Poliwhirl, Water Gun Nidoqueen!"

"Kangaskhan, repeat. Nidoqueen, use Earthquake."

Spyke loyally barrelled into Kangaskhan, who took the blow and smashed him between two clawed fists. The little armored rodent flopped to the floor, and Kangaskhan landed a final Crunch on him, finishing the KO.

Nidoqueen took the Water Gun, then shook the tall building with a massive stomp of her foot. Poliwhirl shuddered but stood his ground. Kangaskhan was knocked to the floor, taking collateral damage from the hasty Ground-type move. The sound of glass shattering emanated from around the building.

"Hydro Gun, I choose you!" I called, sending out a third pokemon. I resolved to train more. Poliwhirl was awesome, but he was making me look bad.

"Hmm... Nidoqueen, Poison Jab the turtle. Kangaskhan, use Reversal on the Poliwhirl."

"Hydro Gun, Hydro Pump Nidoqueen, then Rapid Spin to try to avoid damage and maybe deal some!"

"Poliwhril, Brick Break Kangaskhan again!"

A massive spout of water doused Nidoqueen, staggering her and messing up he Poison Jab. Hydro Gun whirled into a blur, making the hasty blow look embarrassingly clumsy. Kangaskhan, who was weary but not beaten, watched for Poliwhirl's Brick Break. Poliwhirl landed it, but Kangaskhan grabbed his leg and pounded him into the floor as he tried to retreat. He finally looked beaten.

While Hydro Gun pinballed between the two foes, Jack sent out Pidgeotto to fight in Poliwhril's stead. Kangaskhan pulled off another Reversal, this time snatching Hydro Gun out of the air and smashing him to the floor.

"Kangaskhan, finish the turtle with Outrage. Nidoqueen, take out the bird with Body Slam." I noticed he was referring to our pokemon with slight distain.

"Hydro Gun, use Rapid Spin again. Try to direct damage from Kangaskhan to Nidoqueen!"

"Pidgeotto, use Agility and then Sand Attack on Nidoqueen!"

Nidoqueen launched herself into the air, coming straight down in a full-body attack that would have landed, had Pidgeotto not slipped out from under her. The Agility had apparently worked. Nidoqueen's efforts were rewarded with sand in her eyes.

Hydro Gun, though battered pretty bad, spun back into motion, dodging around the furious Kangaskhan and managing to direct some friendly fire into Nidoqueen. He went down under the onslaught, but not before adding some damage of his own. Kangaskhan had actually poisoned herself on Nidoqueen's spikes!

I was about to sent out a fourth pokemon, but then I realized in a multi-battle, I was only allowed to use three. I watched helplessly.

Pidgeotto focused a Gust on Kangaskhan, causing her to faint with added damage from the poison. Then he wound around a Poison Jab. He spun Nidoqueen around with a Whirlwind before using Featherdance to lower her attack power. He then nailed her repeatedly with Wing Attack before the giant fell.

Giovanni looked shocked. Jack did too, but in a triumphant way.

"We made no agreements for an outcome," Giovanni claimed after overcoming his disbelief. He turned on his suit mic again. "Code maroon." He clicked off the mic and said, "You may have beaten me for now, but a new day approaches."

He whirled and grabbed onto a rope that dropped from a hole that had suddenly appeared in the ceiling. It yanked him up.

"Hey, he's getting away!" I called, and Pidgeotto flew toward the hole, but it closed up before he could reach it.

We stood in stunned silence for a moment before the hostage spoke up.

"Excuse me, but I'm the president of Silph Co., and I would be grateful if you would untie me."

I recovered. "Sure." I went over and helped free him. Fortunately, he hadn't been toppled in the battle.

"Thank you so much for getting rid of those fiends. They were trying to find the secrets to our Master Ball production. Silph Co. can never repay you, but we can try." He pulled out a purple Pokeball. It had an "M" on the front.

"Oh, no thanks, I wouldn't accept a reward! I was just helping out." I said, trying to keep up my heroic-ness.

"No, no, I insist! What use is a Pokeball that can catch any pokemon without fail if it isn't used at all? Besides, we took careful notes. We can produce another."

"Alright, if you insist," I said, giving in. I rationalized that I was helping by testing the ball. "What about my friend here? I couldn't have done it without him. And didn't you imply that there was only one Master Ball?"

"Ah, yes," he said, thoughtfully.

"I know. Here, you may have this rare Pokemon." He turned to Jack, handing him a pokeball.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"A Lapras. They're almost extinct."

"Oh. What type is it?"

The question took me aback for a second. Wasn't it obvious? I realized most people didn't study pokemon as much as I did.

"It's Water and Ice type. I'm a little surprised you didn't know that," I said.

He grinned sheepishly. "It's been awhile."

After we and Agent Greenthumb cleaned everything up at Silph Co., I found myself once again standing in front of the Saffron Gym.

"Should I challenge it?" I asked my traveling companion.

"I don't think so. Your pokemon were beaten pretty badly back there." Jack replied.

"Then let's move on. I want to get good and ready. In the meantime, I'll try to get my Soul Badge."

**So THAT'S where destiny went! Like my straying from the orthodoxy of the games with the traveling companion? Well, even if you don't, keep in mind it's a temporary arrangement. And still, remember that Ash still isn't dead.**

**Still haven't edited, but I should soon. Please help my inspiration by reviewing, taking my opinion poll, suggesting a trainer, or some other form of encouragement. If I get a trainer suggestion, they're almost guaranteed to appear next chapter.**

**So that's about it for now, thanks for reading! And please, some nice encouraging feedback?**

**Signing off,**

**Pokelegend **


	18. Chapter 18: Biking and Hiking

**And once again, greetings, readers! Sorry I've taken so long to pump out the next chapter. I will attempt to excuse myself with the following reasons. One is that I needed to work on thinking of material to flesh out the chapter. Two, I don't want to write a Lavender Town repeat. I like this idea a lot, so I don't want to ruin it.**

**In other news, I'm only getting reviews from a small handful of people. I thank them for their time. However, if you're reading this and you haven't/don't plan to review, for shame! Inspiration from feedback helps me write, improve, and add to my story. Lastly I'd like to say that my story is approaching 2,000 views, which makes me very happy. Thanks all!**

Me and Jack were hung up at the western exit of Celadon. We couldn't pass because you need a bike to take Route 17, AKA Cycling Road.

Luckily, there was a bike shop way back at Saffron and I was able to repair the rusty old bike the Digletts gave me. Restoring it was expensive, but they were charging even more outrageous prices for a brand-new one. Fortunately, Jack already owned his own bike, though he hadn't used it in a very long time.

So here we were, just outside the exit, at the top of the hill. Some guys on fancy motorcycles were sitting around at the top of the hill. Most either had mohawks or were totally bald. Upon our appearance, they stirred and hustled over.

"What d'you _kids_ want?" the bald, tattooed punk who appeared to be the leader growled. Jack appeared uncomfortable. He wasn't exactly a kid, but I could tell he still would rather avoid interaction with delinquents.

"We want to use this road. Is that against gangster code or something?" I said, trying to sound tough. My voice cracked when I started the second sentence, so epic fail.

"Whull, yeah, it is if you're thinkin' you can just traipse on by us. We're what you'd call 'volunteer passing guards.'" He grinned sharkishly with that last quip.

"So into the public service business, are we?" I replied with mock friendliness. I wished I sounded more confident, but at least my voice held steady this time. Jack continued to stay silent.

"Let's have ourselves a little battle." he said. He cracked his knuckles and then signaled to the rest of the biker gang, who each sent out a specimen of each and every Poison-type in the Kanto region, excluding any ghosts.

"I'm a sucker for sports, see," the head biker said, "And we'd rather not fool around whid the cops." I found the explanation somehow slightly funny, but I retained my composure and started getting down to business.

"Ash, I choose you!" I called, setting forth my Charmeleon. _They are so dead, _I thought. Jack reluctantly sent out his Poliwhirl.

Ash went down faster than I thought he would due to really bad poisoning, but Poliwhirl held strong and actually put a couple of weak-willed Poison-types to sleep with Hypnosis.

At a loss, I decided to try for type advantage.

"Go, Spyke!" I called. He popped out of his ball and took a fighting stance, but one look at his many adversaries almost made him lose bowel control.

"Come on, Spyke! You can do this!" I called. "Just nail them with Ground-Type moves!" He turned back t me, and I could see determination flowing into his eyes. He turned back and engaged his opponents. He flung sand to mar their aim, then dug and sprang up to inflict damage. Meanwhile, Poliwhirl dropped some enemies of his own.

But their sheer numbers began to wear Spyke down. There was only so much a Sandshrew could do, even with type advantage. He was in the thick of things and slowing down. Just as I contemplated switching out, he began to move faster. He pummeled his foes around in a circle, moving more and more rapidly, kicking up more and more dust. Just as my mind was beginning to register that something was unusual about this, he began to glow.

At that moment, the sand obscured his body and the gangster's pokemon fell back a bit to get away from the dust devil that my pokemon had whipped up. Poliwhirl even stopped to watch his teammate. The dust whirled faster, then cleared. Spyke was standing there, clawed bared and spikes bristling. He was no longer a cute little shrew- he had become a Sandslash.

The foes were initially surprised, but then remembered that they were supposed to be fighting, and moved to get back into it. Spyke observed his enemies one more time, and then ran in another circle. The resulting sandstorm was awesome. It was a full three minutes before the dust cleared, and all the gangster's pokemon lay on the ground, defeated. Poliwhirl looked okay, just a little ruffed up.

The head punk looked a bit shocked, but quickly got over it, shifting from shocked to angry.

"Nobody beats us that bad," he growled, cracking his knuckles and withdrawing his Poison-type minion. "I don't care if the coppers come, you're gonna pay, kiddos."

Spyke had enough. He ran around, whipping up another Sandstorm, then slashed tires as the punks climbed on their bikes. Engines revved, and I realized I might be roadkill if I didn't act fast. My whole team couldn't slow down that many bikers down. It wasn't like a swarm of Beedrill.

"Ride!" I yelled to Jack, who hopped on his bike. Poliwhirl jumped onto him piggyback, turning to hypnotize some bikers behind him.

I got on my bike, but then I realized I was leaving my pokemon behind.

"Spyke! Get over here!" I yelled, and he cannonballed out of his cyclone and hitched a ride on my backpack.

We took off down the hill, pedaling furiously. I realized that the road turned pretty abruptly at the bottom. It had a decent amount of stop distance, but not enough for a safe escape at the speed we were going. I looked back. A contingency of about 20 bikers was after us, gaining fast. I pedaled harder, concentrating on speed and keeping from wiping out. _We're so dead, _I thought, thinking desperately for a solution. After the meager stopping strip, there was a fence, and then there was the ocean. I didn't want to crash into the fence, and then I didn't want the gangsters to force me to seek shore elsewhere.

As the bikers gained, the situation looked worse and worse. We were about a third of the way down the hill when Spyke did something that surprised me.

He jumped off of my backpack.

I looked back in horror to see him roll into a ball and smash into the nearest motorcycle's front tire. Bouncing away, his spines left the tire mangled, and the bike spun out of control, it's rider bailing.

Spyke kept going. He popped open and slashed the next tire in his path, then rolled up again to bounce off the ground. I had to look forward again at this point, but I knew that he was losing speed.

When I looked back again, he caused a bike towards the rear to spiral into another biker. He started running, even though the bikes badly outdistanced him.

Looking forward revealed that we were a little past halfway down the hill. Not good. I looked back again, almost swerving this time, and saw that Spyke was staring to outrun the motorcycles, blowing up a huge cloud of sand behind him. He cut sideways in front of a biker, blinding him and forcing him to bail. He did this to two more before working his way back up to the front, and started to slow down again slashing more tires. I noticed some soaked and dizzy bikers back up the hill, and then saw another one get unseated by Poliwhirl.

Another quick glance, and I realized things were starting to look up. Maybe even a bit literally. Poliwhirl had caught on, and had been using Water Gun and Water Pulse to bring down the punks Spyke missed.

Spike took out two more punk cycles, then ran towards me. Looking back, I saw him leap, then arc and grab back onto my backpack. I checked again, and saw we were closing on a quarter of the way down the hill. Glancing back displayed the three remaining motorists, and one of them being sprayed off his bike.

The other two braked and started the process of swerving to a stop. They would rather not deal with us, now that they were outnumbered and outgunned.

I applied the rear wheel brake, but it didn't seem like enough, and I was still eating up ground too fast. I applied more pressure, and then the bike fishtailed a little bit. I swerved back into control, and tried a more gradual braking, then started putting a little friction on the front wheel. Jack was trying to slow down as well.

I realized there was another reason the last two punks stopped. We might still crash.

I continued to up the pressure of my brakes at the foot of the hill drew nearer. I felt like I was still going too fast at the bottom, and we were forced to lean into the turn as I went around it. We finally slowed to a stop, and then just sort of stood there, one foot on a pedal, and one foot braced against the ground. Jack laughed nervously.

I took off my backpack, letting Spyke to the ground. Poliwhirl climbed down as well.

"You were amazing back there," I told him. "Without your quick thinking, we'd all be roadkill." Spyke nodded. Jack congratulated his pokemon as well.

"I think it's time you had a rest," I said. Spyke nodded, so I put him away in his pokeball. Poliwhirl was withdrawn, too.

We walked our bikes into the exit building, then packed them up.

"You might want to call Officer Jenny," I mentioned to the receptionist. "We have a bad case of road rash up there on the hill. Some bikers think they run the place."

She cradled her head in her hands. "Not _them _again! Oh, the paperwork..."

At that point, we left. No point waiting around. Stepping outside, there was a sign saying, "Welcome to Fuchsia City." Roughly painted below that, "Home of Koga, Ninja of Poison."

"Koga," I said. "Team Rocket stole one of his Venomoth and used it on me. I wonder how they pulled that off?"

"Beats me," Jack said. "I heard they have an open-air, admission free zoo here. We should check it out."

"Sounds good," I replied. I had read about Fuchsia. The zoo was an extension of the Safari Zone, and its whole purpose was to promote the Safari Game.

The first exhibit we came upon was a Lapras.

"Hey, you have one of those!" I said. "I bet it's lonely."

"Yeah," Jack said. "I wonder if..." We looked around and found a Safari Zone worker. "Hey, we were looking at the Lapras. He looks like he needs a friend."

The worker laughed. "Lapzy? That's a she, sonny."

"Oh. Well, she could use another of her kind to talk to."

He looked thoughtful. "As long if it's supervised, I guess."

The three of us went back into the exhibit. Jack sent out his Lapras into the pool with Lapzy, who got excited. They started up a conversation, and before you know it, they were swimming in circles around each other.

"Look at them play!" I laughed. The Safari worker couldn't help but smile himself.

"I think Lapzy's in _love._" the Safari worker said. When I realized this, I almost lost my lunch. How did I miss those goo-goo eyes?

"Uuuhhhh... I'll just go look at some of the other exhibits, okay?" I said, finding an excuse to leave.

"Sure," Jack said. "I'll catch up."

The other displays didn't have such exotic finds. One was Clefairy, but that was nothing new because I had already caught one. I moved on to the most boring pokemon of them all, Slowpoke. It just sat there, looking dopy, unmoving, unblinking. The next one I saw was a Chansey, one of the hardest to catch prizes of the Safari Zone. I wasn't too impressed; I knew that they were the worst physically attacking and defending pokemon in all of creation.

Jack showed back up right after the Chansey exhibit. The next thing we looked at was Voltorb. Like the rest of the exhibits, it was just a hedge surrounding the little field like a fence. Voltorb looked a tad grumpy levitating there, but then again, they almost always look grumpy anyway.

"I wonder how they keep that Voltorb in there?" I wondered out loud. Jack shrugged.

I thought for a moment. "Invisible electric barrier? Army of Magnimite hiding in the hedge? Bribery?"

We read the sign, but it didn't give us any clues.

There was also a Kangaskhan pen, but the mother pokemon was asleep, so it wasn't too intriguing. The sign said it was the second hardest pokemon to obtain from the Safari Zone.

"I'm getting a little tired of the zoo. How about you?" I asked Jack.

"Yeah, I'm a bit bored myself."

"Let's go check out Koga's gym. I want to see if I can learn any tricks for beating him."

"Sure."

To make a long story short, we went on down to the Fuchsia Gym. The sign out front stated:

"Challengers beware! This is the arena of Koga, skilled and clever Ninja of Poison.

Enter at your own risk. The rules of this gym are beyond normal standard. Be prepared for any surprise or be vanquished."

"Gee, _that _sounds friendly," I said.

"It speaks the truth," A female voice said off to my right. I turned toward the speaker. It was a teenage girl with funny purple hair.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am Janine. Koga is my father. Are you really considering challenging him?"

"Well, yeah. I'm trying to collect all eight badges, after all."

"Hmm. Well, you're not going to beat him by force. No matter how strong your pokemon are, their might will not bring victory."

She let that sink in for a moment.

"Okay, so you're saying I have to win through skill?"

"Yes. You must be clever, skilled, and quick. You must have a sound strategy, a nimble mind, and the ability to think outside the box. Only then is victory remotely possible."

"So wait, why are you telling me this? If he's your dad, why are you telling me how to beat him?"

"Two reasons: One is that battling him may have undesired aftereffects. The second reason is that he always loves the more interesting battles. Those who try to defeat him through sheer strength are quickly disappointed and boring to fight."

"Oh, I see, he set you up for this." I realized, grinning.

"Maybe," she said, "But I won't confirm, because it's all part of the mind game." Suddenly, she moved like a bolt of lighting over to the side of a building, ran up it, and vanished.

"So she has ninja skills too, apparently." Jack commented.

"Well, this means I'm not about to fight Koga unprepared. Come on, let's go to the Safari Zone. We can try to catch some more pokemon while I try to cook up a decent strategy."

And off we went. We split the cost at the front gate and went in. The first twenty minutes or so were actually kind of boring. We saw an occasional wild pokemon, but most of them were ones I'd already caught.

I wasn't able to come up with any good ideas, either. I tested them by telling them to Jack and asking how they were flawed. He brought up a fatal flaw in each. Eventually we grew tired of concocting battle plots and went to pokemon trivia instead.

"Did you know that no Pokemon species has a name with more than 10 letters?" I asked Jack.

"Hmm, never noticed that. Okay, how many regions can you name?"

"Uh... let's see, Kanto, of course, Hoenn, Johto, Kalos, Sinnoh, aaaand... Unova. There are probably more I forgot to mention."

"Pretty good. How many types can you list?" Jack said.

"That's easy! Fire, Water, Grass, Ice, Electric, Normal, Dragon, Fighting, Poison, Dark, Ghost, Steel, Rock, Ground, Flying, Bug- Speaking of Rock, Ground, Flying, and Bug, look over there!" I said, pointing at the group of Pokemon that had just grabbed my attention.

A swarm of Scyther were being attacked by a Golem. The big bugs took the super-effective hits surprisingly well, and retaliated by slashing and hacking. Despite being protected by a rocky shell and major type advantage, the sheer numbers and ferocity of the Scyther began to drive it back. They used Agility to increase their already much higher speed and dodge the furious Rock-type moves from the heavy menace. After around three minutes of struggle for supremacy, Golem fainted. Five or six of the Scyther kicked the spherical foe over to a slope, and it rolled away out of sight.

Then the group did something even more strange- they turned on one of their members that had been badly pummeled by their rocky enemy and kicked him out of the group, leaving immediately after.

The injured pokemon stumbled to its feet, but could not catch up to its swarm and fell over in the attempt.

Me and Jack seized the opportunity and ran up to it, Safari Balls ready. It somehow escaped the first one as well as the second, and we stopped throwing the capsule devices out of pity.

"We could help you get strong," I tried. Scyther glared. I looked closer and saw that his bug armor was chipped and worn, proof that this wasn't the first time he had failed to obtain the approval of his peers. In a way, he was like me. He was an outcast from his group, just as I was in school.

"If you come with me, you'll be around pokemon that will accept you. You can hone your skills and see new places. I'll be your friend, as will the rest of my pokemon."

Instead of defiant, he now looked thoughtful. After a couple seconds, he nodded, and the next Safari Ball did the trick. Since my team was full, it energized and went to the PC.

Afterwards, we ended up on our trek of boredom again. The way the Safari was advertised did NOT make it look like there would be this much walking and so few pokemon to catch. We could have taken the tour with a guide in a vehicle, but that cost extra, and we only had so much money. I hadn't been able to fight as many Trainers as usual in the past week or so.

We had been in there another half an hour when disaster struck. Gastly decided to prank me right when we were walking along a cliff shelf. He somehow unclipped my belt and dropped all of my pokeballs onto the ground without making a noise. Right when I picked one up and released its occupant, an explosion rocked the cliff face, and and a landslide roared out from under the shelf.

Gastly was a nice enough guy to vanish without providing assistance. The side of the cliff spilled away rapidly, and a big chunk dislodged under Jack just as he dove to grab two or three of my pokeballs. Fortunately, the pokemon I had managed to send out was Spyke, and he leaped to Jack's aid right before he fell out of sight. I managed to rescue my belt, but all of my team was lost in the landslide as I retreated to more stable ground.

The landslide died down and eventually stopped. I spent the next five minutes being worried about Jack before I realized I was without a team, and therefore defenseless. I nervously crept down to the safety of lower altitude ground, but Jack was till a long way away. It gave me time to think about what just happened.

Explosions don't just happen. Somebody was trying to get rid of me or Jack, or perhaps both of us. This wasn't good. The only culprit that came to mind was Team Rocket- I had messed with them too much, and they probably tried to get rid of me once and for all. That made me worry about Jack even more.

The strange thing is, I hadn't seen any around. You'd think they'd announce their presence and monologue or something.

Just as I reached the bottom of the ramp leading off of the shelf, a large form galloped around the corner. It was grey, and was almost as big as I was, with chunky plates sticking out all over it. Rhyhorn. It's pointed, sharp horn identified it as male.

I dodged to the left, but he just redirected his course to stay on target. I ran to the right, and he again followed my movement. He was mad at me for SOMETHING, apparently. He was almost on me when I leaped sideways, and he turned as sharply as he could to try to stab me with his horn. He instead clipped my leg with his shoulder and sent me spinning to the ground. I look up to see it turning around.

Thinking quickly, I pulled out a Safari Ball and chucked it at the oncoming attacker. It popped open and sucked him in, and after a moment, he burst back out. He was slightly confused for a moment, but after recovering, started charging again.

I threw some more capsules, but none of them served to do anything but slow it down a bit. I got up and prepared to try to swoop out of the way a second time, trying to ignore the pain in my leg. The sharp horn came closer, closer, and then as the Rhyhorn tossed his head to try to gore me again, I dived out of the way, this time getting my pants torn below the knee and earning a nasty gash.

The next thing I knew, Rhyhorn was in a net. Sure enough, Team Rocket had showed up again. The guy with the net gun, however, looked annoyed and reloaded. This didn't make any sense for a second, but I knew I had to think fast. Rhydon tried to wheel around and attack the Rocket grunt, but only tangled his feet more and flopped a little.

I took cover behind my previous attacker. He still looked furious, but paid no heed to me. All of his focus was on the Team Rocket punk.

I popped up to taunt the crook, and he fired off another net. I ducked right as he pulled the trigger, and the net sailed overhead. I peeked again, seeing him mutter as he loaded a fresh round and moved for a closer shot.

My time was almost up. I could only think of one solution. _The enemy of my enemy..._

I grabbed a chunk of rock with a sharp edge and sawed frantically at the ropes of the netted pokemon I was hiding behind. The grunt kept advancing, and as he came around the captive beast, I hacked more frantically. He fired one last shot, and I tried to spring away, only to get my legs and lower body captured by the net. _Time's up..._

Rhyhorn kicked off the ropes from the first net and charged forward, brutally knocking the punk to the ground and stomping the daylights out of him. He then smashed the net gun and walked over to me with his horn lowered.

Just my luck- right when things had started to look up, it appeared I was only stalling fate. I couldn't run, and there would be no leaping out of the way this time.

Except his horn didn't stab me, it sliced off most of the ropes entangling my legs. Hooking it over what was left of the net, he pulled the rest off of me.

"What... ?" I asked, confused.

"Rhy." he said, simply.

"Okay, you were trying to kill me, and now you're freeing me?"

"Horn. Rhyhorn. _Rhy._" he replied, eyes scrunching up in annoyance that I couldn't understand poke-speech. I thought for a moment.

"Were you mad about the cliff being blown up?" Rhyhorn nodded, relieved that his point had finally been across.

"We make a good team. What do you say we fight Team Rocket together?"

He thought for a moment, then nodded and lowered his head. At first I thought he might be threatening me, but then realized that wouldn't make sense, and he was really showing respect and submission.

"All right, then." I said. "I'm not going to try to capture you just yet, because I might need you, and I'm not sure if you'll be sent to the PC. My team is gone, so we need to keep an eye out for Rockets."

Rhyhorn nodded. "The first thing we need to do is go find my friend. He should have my team, assuming my Sandslash was able to keep him from being buried... hopefully."

We set off, moving toward the site of the landslide. We found the rubble and some hog-tied Rocket grunts, but no Jack and no Spyke. Rhyhorn sniffed around the pile of rock and earth, but couldn't find any evidence of my team. Rhyhorns aren't well known for their sense of smell, but it was worth a try anyway.

Eventually a rescue team caught up with us, and I was able to find out what had become of Jack and my team. He and Spyke had survived the rock slide and somehow managed to track down the missing pokeballs. Since they were safe and Officer Jenny showed up to deal with the Rockets, I went ahead and put Rhyhorn in a Safari Ball.

**The ending of this chapter has been removed because I hated what I wrote. I'll just leave it up to you, the reader, as to how it ends. It shouldn't be too hard to guess.**

**But in other news, I'm going to start my second story soon! If you have visited my profile, you probably have caught wind of it already. In order to keep one story from causing the other to wither, I'm going to release each chapter of each story at the same time. The first chapter of my new Fanfiction will be released next chapter.**

**Until next time,**

**Pokelegend **


	19. Chapter 19: Battling the Ninja Master

**Greetings yet again, readers! Welcome to my 19th chapter. Thankfully, I have received some more reviews, for which I am very grateful. Unfortunately, I have been unable to respond to most of them, because they are guest reviews and therefore are not backed up by an account. That said, please review(even if you don't have an account) and show your support!**

**Now, I hope to bring you a decent chapter.**

After everything wound down from the Safari Zone incident, I took a day to rest and vacation to the beach a bit with my Pokemon. Because I had so many to juggle, I took them to the beach in waves of six. We had a great time, even though my Charmeleon can't stand the water. It was amazing what Spyke and Mimien could sculpt out of sand when working together.

The little rest stop gave me an opportunity to get to know my new Rhyhorn. I nicknamed him Tank, just because I liked the way it sounded, and when I started using it to talk to him, he apparently liked it, too.

Jack was busy, because Lapzy wanted to see his Lapras more often, and he had to be there to supervise. Lapzy would raise a racket in Lapras-song when she got lonely now.

The following day I got serious about getting ready to face Koga. I gathered up my team and went to a store to look for some stuff for training. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find a sensei beard and a bamboo staff.

At the training grounds I picked out, I slipped on the beard and released my team. I had assembled my Starters, of course, as well as Fencer, Spyke, and Mimien.

They took a look at my beard and stifled a laugh.

"Now, look, we are going to train to fight Koga," I said gruffly in my best Sensei voice. "He will be very tough to fight, and he will NOT bow to force." I pointed my staff for dramatic effect when I said the word "not," but they still snickered a bit.

"So. I am going to assemble a team of my most _skilled _pokemon and not my most powerful ones. This lesson is a test to see who is worthy to join that team."

And so I made them pair up. I tested each against another with a type disadvantage to see if they could overcome it without the use of large force. The type pairings weren't perfect, but at least they had to defend from a super-effective move.

Fencer did well, but could not get past a rollout from Spyke. Bossplant managed to defeat Ash through the use of spores and powders. And Mimien was able to avoid a Bite attack from Hydro Gun.

Then I scrambled the pairs to test the pokemon that started with the advantage.

Spyke took down Bossplant by surprising him with speed and fighting skill. Hydro Gun fought Bossplant as well and lost, and Mimien got a little left out as Spyke outclassed Ash.

For swiping recklessly and furiously, I clubbed Ash on the head with my stick. He grabbed his noggin and slowly turned to give me the most murderous look I have ever seen on the face of a pokemon.

He lowered his claws into attack mode, revealing a goose egg that looked like a second horn. The rest of my team again suppressed a giggle.

"Now Ash, you don't attack the Sensei," I said, trying and failing to both hide my fear and twirl my staff in a fancy, ninjalike way. "The Sensei is more skilled than- uh oh."

Ash flew into a rage, leaping forward and slashing like a madlizard. I bolted the other way and ran around a tree. A glance backwards showed an angry, fiery reptile still on my tail, and I leaped into the tree and scampered up it.

The branches were too high for my enraged Charmeleon to reach, so he prowled around the foot of the tree to keep me from coming down. I was trapped like a Rattata.

He calmed down slowly, going from raging to fuming in around ten minutes. Then he noticed that I had dropped my staff in my hurried escape, and grinning, he snapped it in half and lit it on fire. Then he abandoned the tree I was in and curled up for a nap.

Wary that his act of vengeance had not satisfied him, I waited a couple minutes before coming down. My beard got hopelessly tangled in a branch as I came down, and I had to leave it.

"Laugh it up," I grumbled as my team went into hysterics. It woke Ash up, and I was scared he'd come after me again, but he saw the tangled beard and joined the mirth.

"Well, I know who's staying and going in the team, at least." I said, mostly to myself.

Returning to the pokemon center, I put Ash and Hydro Gun in the PC. I withdrew my new Scyther and Tank, then returned to my training area.

Tank was fairly fresh and had no battle kills, and his preferred strategy(that usually worked for him) was pummel your enemy into submission. However, Koga would just laugh if I used him, so he had to go back in the PC.

Fencer worked with my other new pokemon, Scyther. As they trained, I cooked up a nickname for him in my head. I felt pretty clever when he liked being called Scizythe, a combination of "scythe" and "scissor."

Scizythe worked hard in his training, fueled by some strange competitive fury. He greatly improved his Swords Dance while sparring with Fencer, who used a metal bar in order to prevent his onion sprig from being minced. He also drilled Agility and Double team, making his speed almost excessive and his evasiveness insane.

He made the team. Fencer, who was at this point tired of travel and fine with mentoring, declined being on the team. He was happy training the recruit.

I filled Fencer and Tank's spots on the team with the Twins, as they were poison types and had some tips for the rest of my team on avoiding being poisoned. Thing 1 preferred a skilled, Koga-like approach, namely poisoning opponents through skill and trickery. Thing 2, however, worried me because he used a reckless charge. I made him re-focus on teaching them intimidation and changing directions at high speed.

The Twins made the team, for lack of more usable pokemon. They were Poison-type, and therefore stood a better chance.

Feeling ready, I went on down to Koga's gym and went in.

The first thing I noticed was that it was more dim than most gyms. The second was that the floor was tilted, and the walls of the room slanted funny. It made a disorienting effect like gravity was pulling the wrong way.

Something sliced through the air near my cheek. I looked towards the upper corner of the nearest wall of the room to see a man in dark robes. He sprang from the corner and seemed to land on air, then run across the air, leap, and fall the rest of the way down to the middle of the room, landing silently on the middle of the pokeball design on the floor.

"Wha-?" I stammered. I was not prepared for this.

He spoke. "Welcome to my gym, challenger. I could have hit you with that dart if I wished. Observe..." He pulled out three more darts, and in quick succession, he threw them into a target high on the wall. Or rather, the first one hit the target in the bullseye, and the other two stacked out from the first.

I gawked at the little chain of darts poking out of the target. "You see? The first dart was for effect."

"Okay, that was cool and all, but let's get down to busin-" I said, walking forward into an invisible barrier. "What in the world?"

"An old ninja trick," Koga smirked as I felt around the invisible wall I had smacked into.

I remembered the first dart, and sure enough, it seemed to be suspended in the air, quivering slightly.

"I have to admit, that's quite a trick," I said, trying to feel around. _Well, that explains the running on air,_ I thought to myself.

"Navigate my invisible maze, and you may do battle with me," Koga explained.

I thought for a minute, observing my surroundings. The walls were interesting, because a casual observer wouldn't have any idea that they were there. I noticed slight hints, though. There were slight distortions around where I assumed the top of a wall would be, and they lined up where Koga had run. The floor also had traces of shadow that shouldn't be there.

The problem was, the tops of the walls were hard enough to see, and Koga had kept the place really clean, so no floating dust specks or pieces of dirt gave a wall away. It could take all day to navigate such a maze.

"I'm allowed to use pokemon to get through, right?" I asked Koga.

He dipped his head and replied, "Use any way you think necessary. I enjoy watching creative ways to complete the task."

I thought for a minute more, then made up my mind how I was going to do it.

"Mimien, I choose you!" My humanoid pokemon sprang from his ball and came to attention.

"You can feel the walls with your mind, right?" Mimien's face contorted with concentration for a second, then he smiled and nodded.

"Can you take me through the maze, Mimien?" Again his head bobbed, and then he took a right and started in. I followed right behind him as he wandered around the slanted room, coming to a conclusion in front of the pokeball design on the floor. He surprised me, because he confidently rushed through the whole thing, and didn't double back at all.

"Very good," Koga said, "You have completed the task. Now to earn your Soul Badge, you must defeat me in pokemon combat. Shall we begin?"

"Yeah, let's have a double battle," I replied. "Go, Twins!" My Nidorino and Nidorina leaped from their capsules and took a fighting stance.

"I see. Arbok and Koffing, prepare for battle!"

_Koffing? Koffing is a bit under-evolved, _I thought, but then I remembered that very few of my pokemon were completely evolved, so I didn't have any right thinking that.

"Alright, Thing 1, try using Bulk Up. Thing 2, Focus Energy." I told my sibling fighting force.

Koga didn't command his pokemon at all. Instead, he reached into his cloak, pulled out two objects, and flung them at my pokemon. They spun through the air and collided with their targets before clattering to the floor. I got a good look at them, and saw they were-

"Moon stones?" I asked in bewilderment. In front of me, my pokemon glowed white and bulged larger. As the light faded, their new forms were revealed- Nidoking and Nidoqueen. They staggered and dropped to their knees.

Koga took a ninja stance, one arm extended forward with two fingers pointing toward my pokemon. Arbok raced toward them and wrapped up Thing 2 in his coils, squeezing the air out of him in an instant KO. He moved on to the sister, and before she could regain her feet, she had been constricted as well.

His enemies defeated, Arbok returned to his side of the battlefield.

I was about to ask what just happened, when I realized that Koga had purposely evolved the Twins and used the shock of unwanted evolution to overcome them with ease.

As I returned them to their pokeballs, I complained, "What if I didn't want them to evolve yet?"

"Then you should have thought twice before entering my gym," Koga replied.

"Alright, then, Mimien and Scizythe, I choose you!" Mimien looked ready, and Scizythe appeared pumped.

"Mimien, block anything you can with Barrier, and Scizythe, well, do your thing."

Scizythe sprang forward, narrowly avoiding a Sludge Bomb from Koffing, and engaged Arbok, who bent around the first swing of his massive, swift claw. He used Double Team to produce confusing holograms as he landed, then combined an Agility and a Swords Dance to knife away from Arbok's Poison Fang.

Koga made a swift motion, and Koffing moved in for a Toxic. A Barrier from Mimien slowed him down, and when he pulled off the move, Scizythe flipped through the air and narrowly avoided it.

Arbok struck again, and Scizythe parried his fangs with another Swords Dance before using another Agility to boost his already ninjalike speed and rocket away from a blow from Arbok's tail. Arbok completely ignored the Double Teams and headed straight for Mimien and Scizythe, only to be stopped by the latter.

Flitting out of the way of a Smog, my Scyther pulled off one last Agility and set on Arbok again, this time going full offesive. Arbok was insanely fast, but he couldn't outspeed the saurian insect now, and the powerful blows fell on his back and head with little resistance.

Scizythe slowed down and panted as he stood over his vanquished serpentine opponent, and then whipped around and tried to slash another Sludge Bomb out of the air. He flailed in the blob of nastiness and fainted, making me wish I had trained him a little more on Special Defense.

I replaced him with Bossplant, and Koga pulled out a Weezing. Mimien focused hard and nearly downed Koffing with a Psychic attack, and Bossplant set to work on Weezing.

Weezing stopped a Sleep Powder with a Smog, making the fluffy powder too heavy to reach him. Next Bossplant tried Stun Spore, but Weezing burned it away with Will-o-wisp. On the other side of the battlefeild, Mimien dropped Koffing with a carefully placed Psybeam, trading an opening and getting poisoned.

Koga replaced Koffing with Muk. Bossplant, seeing a tactical advantage, used Vine Whip to grab Weezing and mash him into Muk's sludgy body so he couldn't breathe. Mimien, though poisoned and weakened, boxed them in with Barriers and used his last reserves of strength to use Psychic on Weezing.

Both Mimien and Weezing fainted simultaneously. Fortunately for me, Muk was Koga's last pokemon.

"Okay, Spyke, win me another badge!" I called, as my Sandslash entered battle.

Bossplant got in a Stun Spore before Muk smothered him, too. Now it was just Muk vs. Spyke.

"You're my last one, Spyke! Make this count." Spyke nodded and used Sandstorm, marring Muk's aim just enough to avoid a Sludge Bomb. He tried slashing the mass of sludge that was Muk to no effect, then ran around in a circle around the battle space to stir his sandstorm up more.

Muk fired attacks into the tornado, but Spyke dodged around them and kept going. Faster and faster he ran, until finally Muk was sucked up off the ground and hurled to the ceiling by the cyclone. He was helped along with getting up there by a carefully placed Swift.

Spyke skidded to a halt, and the vortex slowed down. Muk was covered with sand, and just plopped to the floor instead of sticking to the ceiling.

Muk still wasn't knocked out, so I decided it was time to switch tactics. As I yelled, "Use dig to churn up some dirt!" Spyke dodged a Sludge attack that was dampened by the sand.

Spyke dug around in circles, tearing up Koga's gym floor and making it really hard for Muk to land a blow. If Muk tried to corner him, he'd just use Dig and get out of the way. After a couple of tense minutes, Spyke began chucking dirt at Muk and slowing him down.

Muk's body got so diluted with soil that he could barely move or attack. Spyke seized the moment to place some Slashes that actually did something without poisoning him. Muk, having enough, fainted.

This did not phase Koga.

"Congratulations, challenger, you have vanquished the ninja master of poison, after completing the Invisible Maze. I award you this Soul Badge." He pulled the badge out of his cloak and handed it to me. Looking around, he said, "You can tell it was an interesting battle if extensive cleanup is required before the next trainer comes."

Looking around, I saw he was right. The floor was wrecked, the walls were covered in sludge, sand, and dirt, and even the ceiling had gunk on it. "You're not mad, are you?"

"No, I don't mind the gym being torn up if there has been an epic struggle. I enjoyed that battle. You have truly earned that badge." Koga said in reply, as he withdrew his fainted Muk.

I showed Spyke the badge he had won. Instead of doing what he did back at Surge's gym, he smiled and grated his claws together.

"Well, if you need any help cleaning up, just let me know."

Koga did not reply. Instead, he flipped backwards and vanished.

**That's a better ending than trying to wrap it up, right? I sure hope so.**

**In other news, I'm starting my other story going now. It looks like it's going to turn out decent. The first chapter isn't much, but it's out now.**

**So that's it for a bit! More soon! (I hope...)**

**Pokelegend **


	20. Chapter 20: Returns

**This chapter promises to be a painful belly flop. However, it's necessary forthe development of my story, and I've spent too much time between last chapter and this one.**

**So, if this physically hurts, reader, I'm very sorry. (-Unless you're Psychicshipping, in which case you deserve it, you trolly spiteful brony. ;) )**

The following day was uneventful, so I just hung out at the Pokecenter. I now had a problem- I had too many pokemon. To try to remedy this, I decided I need to rotate my team a little more. More rigorous training will be needed as a result.

I spent most of my time hanging out with my pokemon. Jack wasn't there, because Lapzy was, let's say, _reluctant_ to come off her companionship high. She was like a toddler- the more she got, the more she wanted.

Fortunately, Nurse Joy informed me that Shocker had overcome his pokerus, so now he could rejoin my team. I had him sent over.

"Hey buddy!" I said as I released him from his ball.

"Pika." he replied, grumpily.

"You're still mad? Can't you let it go already?"

He grumbled, then looked thoughtful and sighed. To my surprise, he held out his hand.

"Truce?" I asked, and he nodded his head. As soon as I put my hand in his, he unleashed a charge of electricity into my body.

"YEEEEEOW!" screamed, and Shocker laughed his head off.

"You know what, you little stinker?" I said, reaching into my bag.

"Pika?" he asked, only mildly interested.

"I was going to give you-" -I pulled out a fresh bottle of ketchup- "_this,_ but you weren't very nice to me just now, were you?"

His eyes followed the bottle hungrily as I waved it back and forth. He leaped forward to snatch it away, but I jerked it away just in time.

"Uh uh uuuuuuuhhhh, you have to earn it." I said. He gave me a grudging hug.

"That's not what I had in mind, but I'll take it." I took the bottle back out, uncapped it, and squirted some of the condiment into his mouth.

He licked his lips and made another move to seize the bottle.

"Nope. What I had in mind was a little training. You need to catch up."

He looked grumpy, then crossed his arms.

"No more ketchup until you train!" I said, putting the bottle away.

Albeit reluctantly,he followed me outside.

He must have really wanted that ketchup. He smashed Bossplant with an Iron Tail, blowing him away with one hit. Ash fell to a mighty Thunderbot, and Hydro Gun barely shook a Shock Wave before being taken out by a Quick Attack.

Spyke lasted a bit longer, but Shocker began to outrun him with Agility and nail him with repeated type-neutral moves. Another Thunderbolt took Scizythe down before he could boost his stats.

Shocker stood triumphant, making me decide to always have ketchup on hand, because it was a great training tool and might help in a pinch in battles.

"Pika." Shocker said, walking up to me. By the tone of his voice, he was probably saying, "_Pay up._"

I pulled out the bottle and gave it to him. Or rather, I pulled out the bottle and he took it from me. Forcefully. The thing was depleted after a mere two minutes, a new record.

"I think that's enough training for you, at least for now." I said, returning all of them to their spherical containment units and heading back to the Pokecenter. After reviving my team, I went to the Mart to buy five or six new bottles of ketchup. I couldn't just take one with me, especially not when traveling around with Shocker on my team.

I decided to depart from Fuchsia, and went to get Jack. Lapzy put up a big fuss when he withdrew his Lapras, forcing him to sent him back out.

"I guess you can't stop love," Jack said, "Looks like you should go on without me. It might be some time before I get done here."

I regretted leaving my traveling companion, but my journey beckoned, and so off I went.

Just before I got to the outskirts of Fuchsia, I was stopped by a familiar-sounding voice.

"You there! Stop right now! I demand a rematch!"

"Rematch?" I said as I turned to see someone I had not intended to see again.

"You and me have a little unfinished business," said Travis the Trainer Trasher. "So name your stakes. I win, you hand over your license and team."

"Fine. I win, you give me all the contents of your bag, except for your team, your folding table, and your stupid trainer card album."

"Let's begin. Primeape, you're my first." _Primeape? I don't remember him having a Primeape! _ I thought. He must have caught more pokemon since last time. This was bad news.

"Alright, Ash, I choose you!" I sent him out and he bared his claws menacingly and gave a competitive glare.

Primeape just drew back and punched him in the face. It was a one-hit KO. Primeape turned back to his trainer as if to say, "Is this all I'm up against?"

_That does it. I need to work on my team's defenses,_ I thought, as I sent out Hydro Gun.

Hydro gun, use Rapid Spin." Hydro Gun whirled into the air without hesitation, easily dodging a powerful blow and conking Primeape in the head and following that up with crashing into his arms and back, finally taking his legs out from under him, all in quick succession. He landed back in front of me in a fresh battle stance.

"That's _much _better," I said, "Now soak him." Hydro Gun blasted Primeape with a Hydro Pump just as it was getting up.

Primeape fainted. It looked like Ash wasn't the only one who needed to brush up on his defensive skills.

Next Travis sent out a Victreebel. I withdrew Hydro Gun to fight again later, sending out Scizythe instead.

"Okay, Scizythe, use Swords Dance, Agility, and Double Team and avoid getting hit!" Scizythe sprang into action, making confusing holograms, upping his attack, and dodging using Agility. Victreebel tried to keep up with him, but only managed to lash a couple of holograms with Vine Whip.

"Now use X-Scissor!" I called, and the real Scizythe sprang forwards, raising his claws to his body and slashing out in a scissoring motion. Victreebel managed to land a Poisonpowder before going down.

Travis growled and followed up with Golem. He had apparently evolved his Graveler. Golem was too slow to hit my Scyther, but even with maximized Attack, none of Scizythe's high-speed blows did much. Eventually the poison wore him out so much that he had to slow down, opening him up to be hit with a Rock Blast.

The four-times supereffective hit blew him away, and Golem didn't show many signs of damage besides some big scratches and gashes in his rocky armor.

I sent out Bossplant as a replacement. "Bossplant, use Solarbeam!" He started charging it up, but it was too late. Golem picked him up and slammed him into the ground. I thought it should knock him out, but he just barely hung on. I got one more glimpse of his face as Golem lifted him back up, and there was a strange glint in his eye, and it seemed to say, "Don't worry, I got this."

Golem was just about to slam him again, when Bossplant started to glow white and expand. Golem staggered and lost his grip, and fell to the ground as Bossplant's weight increased. Golem started to pick his face up out of the dirt, but a very heavy Grass-type landed on top of him, crushing him back down.

A full-grown Venusaur was squishing him down now. Golem used Flail, and managed to squirm out from under Bossplant's new bulk. Even though he was battered and weakened, Bossplant still looked strong. The final rays of sunshine soaked into his leaves, and he nailed Golem with a four-times effective Solarbeam, amped up by his Overgrow ability.

Golem, who had just managed to stand back up, was taken by surprise and was blasted out of consciousness.

Travis looked furious, but sent out Magmar. I knew it would be entirely stupid to leave Bossplant in battle, so I sent in Hydro Gun as backup again.

Magmar nailed Hydro Gun pretty bad with a Psychic attack before getting a Hydro Pump to the face. Magmar crumpled.

"Hah! He didn't get a taste of Water-type power last time," I bragged.

The only problem was that Magmar got back up.

"Nuts! Hit him again." Hydro Gun fired off another high-pressure stream of water, but missed this time. Magmar returned a Focus Blast, and Hydro Gun barely shook it.

"Now try Rapid Spin," I called, and Hydro Gun bounced back into the air, smacking Magmar around some more before getting taken down by a carefully place Thunderpunch.

"Your Squirtle didn't get to eat electricity last time, either," Travis said, giving a mocking retort to my earlier egotistic statement.

"He's a Wartortle now," I grumbled, returning my fallen fighter to his pokeball.

I sent out Spyke. "Okay, Spyke, we're in trouble. Fix that by using Dig." Spyke nodded and completed the attack, felling Magmar. The fiery pokemon didn't rise like the first time.

"Okay, then, go, Muk." The sludgy pokemon flew from its ball. Spyke grinned sharkishly, then gave it the same treatment Koga's Muk got.

Muk was quickly defeated, and things were looking up when Travis' last pokemon was Electabuzz.

Things started looking bad again when Electabuzz one-hit KO'd Spyke with an Ice Punch.

I was down to Shocker. "Okay, Shocker, it's all up to you!" I called, trying and failing to put some courage into my voice.

Shocker came out of his pokeball, looking just as unhelpful as ever. He folded his arms and leered at me defiantly. He wasn't even bothered by a Thunderbolt by Electabuzz.

Fortunately, I was prepared for this. I produced a bottle of ketchup and tossed it at Electabuzz, yelling, "Here! Catch!"

Electabuzz was a but surprised, but still managed to catch the bottle. He looked angry, then smashed the bottle, sending red quasi-liquid everywhere and covering himself in it.

The color red infuriates Electabuzz, a little bit of trivia I picked up in Pokemon Studies class. Here, I used it to my advantage.

Travis' pokemon had entirely forgotten about the battle, and so had Shocker. The electric mouse, enraged at Electabuzz for ruining his precious condiment, leapt on top of him and started beating him up, first with Slam, then with Iron Tail, then with a full out Strength attack, which I didn't even know he knew.

Electabuzz pummeled Shocker back in his rage, but a final Iron Tail to the head must have been a critical hit, because he went slack slumped to the ground.

Shocker stood over him, licking the ketchup off of his paws. Travis turned pale as a ghost.

"That did _not_ just happen," he griped.

"Buddy, I just won fair and square. Hand over the bag." After some more grumbling and a recalling of his pokemon, the Trasher gave it up. I pulled out the folding table and chucked it to him, followed by his Trainer Card album.

"_Adios,_" I called over my shoulder as I headed back to the pokemon center.

Shocker got an extra bottle of ketchup for pulling me through before I pulled out his pokeball. He looked a little annoyed at having to go back in, so I let him stay out.

After getting my pokemon revived, I returned to the Mart and sold all the useless items I had won from Travis, keeping the better stuff. After the humbling experience of having my team wiped almost completely out, I decided to buy more in-field healing items.

I actually made it to Route 15 this time, and most of the way to the Route 13 boardwalk was pretty unremarkable, except for a battle with a bird keeper. He had been broke, so he challenged me thinking I'd be easy money, but ended up handing over Hidden Machine Fly as payment for his mistake.

Walking down the boardwalk was pretty refreshing, even though I had been at a coastal city fairly recently. Refreshing, that is, until I was stopped by a Team Rocket grunt.

He was up on the cliffside, and he had a speakerphone. "We have you surrounded, and the underside of the boardwalk is loaded with with explosives. Surrender now or be blown sky high."

It threw me for a second, but then, as there was only one of him, I decided to call his bluff.

"Yeah, right, I'll just surrender to one lier with a megaphone," I called, and was about to start walking when the guy pulled out a plunger box, and portions of the cliff folded out to reveal Rocket grunts with net guns. A lot of them.

"Whoop, just kidding," I said, raising my arms.

I was in real trouble now.

Thinking fast, I pulled a particular ball off of my belt and sent out Scizythe, while pulling my backpack off and tossing it so the strap caught around his neck.

"Keep this away from Team Rocket, and meet up with me down the boardwalk!" I hurriedly told him, grabbing another ball off my belt.

Meanwhile, the grunt up on the cliff yelled, "Take cover!" and pushed down the plunger into the box. I looked up just as it happened, and realized I wasn't all that ready to die.

Except I didn't die. The wooden walkway didn't even shudder.

The Rocket with the plunger box cursed and turned to look somewhere behind him.

"George, I thought you said you checked this thing!"

"I did! My Koffing even okayed it!"

"But he's still standing there! The thing didn't blow up!"

I didn't hear the rest, because that's when the nets started to fly, and I leaped into the ocean.

I would have made a clean getaway if I hadn't been netted in midair. I plunged into the sea, still holding on to the particular pokeball. _It just keeps getting better and better, _I thought. Now I was going to drown. I was a strong swimmer, but having your arms pinned kind of makes it hard to swim. And I went in pretty deep, because the net slammed into me at a steep angle and weighed me down, sinking me quickly with all that extra momentum.

My mind reeled. I _still_ wasn't totally ready to leave this world, but it looked a lot like that was going to happen anyway. My lungs clenched. My only hope was the pokeball in my hand. I worked my finger over to where it needed to be and pushed the button, releasing its occupant.

Everything sank into oblivion as my vision tunneled and closed into darkness.

Light returned abruptly as I felt a blunt impact on my belly. I lurched forward and spewed out seawater, and whether it was from my lungs or my stomach, I couldn't tell. My arms were still stuck, and then I felt another punch to the gut.

I opened my eyes to see the face of a very concerned Wartortle, who drew back one more time and nailed me again, forcing up what I knew to be my lunch. The fist came back once more, but this time I had regained the ability to speak.

"That's enough, that's enough! I'm okay!" I cried, struggling to try to swim in the next.

Hydro Gun relaxed slightly and then ripped open the net I was in, freeing me to wrestle my way out of it. Once free, I could swim without Hydro Gun having to pull me up.

He nodded and the judo-threw me over his shoulder.

"What was that for?" I sputtered as I came back up. Then I saw the net bobbing to the surface.

"Oh." I looked back towards the boardwalk to see that Scizythe was doing excellently in his game of keepaway. He used Swords Dance and Agility to avoid nets aimed at him while creating confusing copies and slashing nets out of the air.

Knowing that my bag was safe with my Scyther, I returned my attention to the pressing matter of my own safety. Some grunts had manned jet skis, and were closing in from all directions. Fortunately, only about one in three of them had net guns, and they were quickly blown off by Hydro Pumps. Hydro Gun could only handle so many at a time, however, and had to deflect them with Rapid Spin when they drew too close.

One slipped past him, and the punk leaned triumphantly towards me with an outstretched hand. Suddenly, his head was yanked back and he howled, spiraling off course into another jet ski. I caught a glimpse of a very amused Gastly who was laughing his spectral head off, and started to wonder if the boardwalk hadn't blown up because of something besides Rocket incompetence.

Hydro Gun managed to head off the rest of the jet skiers, but just barely, and when he returned to my side, he was worn out. Too much more of this, and I would be out of luck.

That's when a fresh, large contingency of jet skiers pulled out from their concealment on the pier. This time, the ratio of net guns was higher. There was no way Hydro Gun could deal with so many.

He turned to look at me, and I stared back, and we both acknowledged the imminent truth: this was the end.

And then I saw something else- a new hope, an idea welling up in the way my Wartortle's eyes shined. He used one more Rapid Spin, bouncing across the water like a skipping stone. He hosed the oncoming assailants with a sweeping Hydro Pump, using his spinning motion to blast a wider range. Those who were unprepared flew off their water vehicles, and the nets headed for Hydro Gun were knocked from the air.

He bent his route sideways to get out of the way, but then swerved back the other direction, back in the line of the jet skis, now moving perpendicular to their course.

And then he started to glow. His body expanded, and suddenly his Rapid Spin blew out a huge wave of water. As the glow faded, dual spouts of water started sniping Rockets off of their skis, and the rest were swept away in the tidal wave swept up by his furious rotation. Any nets that got past his high-pressure blasts bounced harmlessly off of his body, because now he was too wide to get wrapped up.

All of the jet skiers were taken out in one fell swoop. Hydro, Gun, now an impressive Blastoise, returned once again to next to me, and let me hop on his back. He started back towards the cliffside with the boardwalk, continuing to blast water, this time blowing away the net gunners on the cliff face. After about the fifth one, the Rockets were in full retreat.

"That was AWESOME!" I shouted as we came back to the dock. Scizythe had kept my backpack perfectly safe.

At that point, I realized three things- one, that I almost died twice and was almost captured once, two, that I was incredibly lucky, and three, I was soaked, and I would have to listen to the sound of my wet shoes on the boardwalk all the way to the nearest town or city.

Scizythe's neck was tired from my backpack hanging off it, and it wasn't like he could simply lift it off himself, what with those huge scythe-like claws. I didn't want to get it wet, but my options for carrying it without doing so were limited. It wasn't right to make Scizythe carry it, not with his sore neck, Hydro Gun and I were dripping wet. Spyke was a little small and spiky for the job, and I couldn't trust Shocker or Ash not to do something rash.

"You guys saved my life!" I said. Both of them dipped their heads, but Scizythe might have been trying to take off my backpack without shredding it.

"Want a rest? You look like you deserve one." I asked. Scizythe nodded gratefully, so into his ball he went. Hydro Gun, however, shook his head.

"Okay, you can walk with me and Bossplant." I sent out my recently evolved Venusaur and climbed on his back, right in front of the enormous blossom. He held my backpack in a Vine Whip as we headed down the boardwalk, wooden boards creaking under the weight of the two massive Starters.

The problem was, Bossplant's new size made him move more slowly, so progress was made at almost half the speed I was used to. After I felt dry enough to wear my pack, I pulled it on and withdrew my pokemon.

Finally, after hours of squeaking shoes and uneventful traveling boredom, I found my intended destination: Saffron city. This was what, my third, fifth visit? I had lost track.

The rest of the day was spent dealing with the aftereffects of my plunge into the ocean and training my pokemon. I focused entirely on defensive skills.

**I was going to write more, but I decided it would be better to stop here. Really, it's better this way. And I apologize if this was painful to read. (Okay, maybe even to you, Psychicshipping.)**

**Anyway, it would really spice this story up if I could get some trainer suggestions. What I'm looking for is:**

**Personality**

**What pokemon they'd have(bear in mind the region Joseph is in)**

**Catchphrases**

**...And any additional information that could help me write them in. Any good suggestions may be edited into this chapter.**

**One more thing, my summer is getting a bit busy, so I might not be able to write as often.**

**So as always, please review, and please suggest a trainer for Joseph to run into!**

**Until next time,**

**Pokelegend **


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